Caterwaul Two: Shattered Sanity
by CatGirlFireflare
Summary: Here's the sequel to "A Con Called Caterwaul"! Begins very soon after the last "Caterwaul" chapter, in between episodes "TMI" and "Stronger, Faster." Jack, Miko, and Raf may have been the first kids to get to know the Transformers, but they weren't the last. A strange girl with a painful past ends up meeting some Cybertronians, too. But not necessarilly the "good guys."
1. Chapter 1

**Hiiii! It's me: CrazyCatGirl! Here's the sequel to "A Con Called Caterwaul." Sorry it's taken me so long to start typing it up! With the Hurricane Sandy causing power outages, I haven't been able to update anything! *_twitches from internet-withdrawal_* Also, my great-Grandmother recently passed away, as did at least three of our fish (Isten, Acer, and Geo). I dedicate this first chapter to these four persons. And now, I shall answer reviews from the last "Caterwaul" chapter.**

**To ****Autobot-Blurr 221****: Aww, I'm glad you like it! Yes. There is muchly love indeed.**

**To ****TransFan101****: Hahaha, well, **_**now**_** there's a sequel. Sorry it's taken so long for me to post it. Haha, I'm so happy that my fanfic has made you shout for joy!**

**To ****Autobot StarRacer****: Yeah, I'll try to update more, but that'll take a while, I think.**

**To ****Mayday200****: What? A whole week of no sugar?! What madness does this be?! Ok, I will. (**_**Me:**_** Hey, Breakdown! **_**Breakdown: **_**What now, tiny human? **_**Me:**_** This poor reviewer has no sugar! We must get their dad to let them have some! **_**Breakdown:**_** Why? I'm busy. **_**Me: **_**Busy telling Caterwaul you loooooooove her? **_**Breakdown:**_** If you weren't the authoress of this story, I'd pound you! **_**Me:**_** Yes, I know you would. But I'll quit bothering you if you help this poor reviewer get some sugar! **_**Breakdown:**_** Rrrrgh, fine! **_**Me:**_** Caterwaul can go with yooouuu... **_**Breakdown:**_** ...Better. Let's go!) Oh, thank you so much! Thank you for telling me which parts are better than others in my story, now I can try to improve the other parts! Thank you for so many nice compliments!**

**To ****Iceshadow911247****: It doesn't exactly end there, it continues here! Yeah, me too. Curse my overwhelming awe of Transformer-celebrities like Optimus! Yikes, ok, ok! Please don't find me and stare through my window; FireFlare might shove our ferret in your face to protect me! (Seriously, you'd be surprised how crazily a ferret, especially one who's just had a bath, can scratch up a face! I know: I've tried it. It's still adorable, but very pointy.)**

**And now... THE CHAPTER!**

A pair of bright, blue-gray eyes stared out from an old apartment window. The left eye was slightly more closed than the right, courtesy of a long, thick scar running from the middle of the forehead to the left cheek.

The eyes belonged to a young girl, roughly 16 years old. She blinked quickly as a sudden hot breeze spat dust and sand at her, whipping her stringy brown hair around her face.

Aside from her eyes, nothing else moved, remaining tensely motionless. The girl's eyes flicked back and forth ever so slightly as she observed the unbelievable scene before her.

Over a mile away out in the desert, out of sight of the town behind the girl's lair, a ferocious battle raged.

Enormous, multi-colored metal creatures, mostly humanoid, clashed and fought, sending sparks, sand, and rocks flying. Weapon-fire blasted the ground as some of the metal beings dodged the shooting from others.

It was insanity. And the girl smiled in wonder at it all.

Slowly, one of her hands lifted and lightly stroked the jagged scar across her left eye. That scar had resulted from a similar experience with the metal persons.

***Flashback***

Over a year ago, she'd been wandering around with her cat, a bit farther than usual from her family's house, watching some incredible birds –turkey vultures- flying through the sky. She hadn't realized how far she'd gone, following them, until she grew thirsty and decided to go back.

As the girl had slowly retraced her steps back to her house with her pet/friend, there'd been a sudden noise, like wind through huge trees, and she'd spotted a greenish glow coming from behind her.

When she'd turned to look, the girl had been stunned to see gigantic, mechanical beings stepping out of a whirling greenish vortex. Her gray cat had stood protectively in front of her and hissed at the unexpected sight. Brave cat.

The girl and feline scurried behind a dull-orangey rock formation, watching in amazement as the spinning green-and-blue lightshow vanished, and the robots had begun speaking with one another.

Another vortex of light opened, and even more robots emerged. But they obviously weren't very good friends with the first ones, seeing as the two groups began blasting one another with huge cannons and guns.

Aside from the highly advanced-looking machinery, there was quite a lot of blade-slicing and fist-punching used as well. Pieces of metal, mostly small scraps and slivers, went flying.

One of these pieces had been about the size of a large, thin chef's knife, and had gouged the girl's left eye as it sailed past. She'd tried to stifle her yowl of shock and pain, then picked up the slice of metal and hurried away with her cat following, and the duo hid farther away in the mountain-like rocks.

There, she'd wiped some blood away from her eye and assessed the damage to it. Thank goodness the scrap of metal hadn't punctured it, but it'd sliced her forehead, left eyebrow and eyelid, and left cheek.

The girl had cleaned away as much of the blood as she could, and her feline had licked her face in comfort. After the battlefield went silent, the pair had gone back to the house. The cat had returned to his mate, a white she-cat with brown stripes, who was napping on a couch.

The girl had returned to the bathroom, where she examined her eye in the mirror and cleaned it thoroughly. Her younger sister had believed her when she explained what'd happened, but her parents hadn't.

They'd thought that she'd done it to herself o gotten into a fight, and her dad had taken away her TV and computer privileges for supposedly lying. The girl understood that her story'd been hard to believe, but it still stung that her parents didn't trust her.

She'd had problems with them for a long time, and her mom yelled at her a lot, and her father acted depressed a lot. But the girl had still felt hurt that now they didn't even believe her.

***End of flashback***

The girl had kept that gash on her eye, and it'd slowly faded into a scar. She had scars, small ones, all over her arms, legs, and upper back. Even on her lower neck. They were from old bug-bites and tiny scratches that she hadn't allowed to heal.

Some were reminders she'd given herself using her sharp nails, reminders to be better. Others were old scratches from when she'd gotten angry and clawed at her arms with her nails.

Sometimes, when she was bored, she'd count her scars, or try to remember where some of them had come from. She didn't mind them at all. If anything, she liked how they looked in the light.

A furry touch on her hand made the girl look down, exiting her little trip down memory lane. The furry thing was her gray cat friend, Phaser.

He had light, silvery fur, deep emerald eyes, ripped ears, and a scarred pelt, and one of the claws on his right front foot was jammed to one side.

He was her best friend on Earth, besides her sister back at their family's house. Phaser was one of several feral cats and dogs living in the abandoned apartment with the girl. Among the other felines was Phaser's mate, Lightray, the brown-striped white female with blue eyes.

She'd recently had four little kittens, and Shard had helped the pair get fresh food every day, whether it be from killed rats or from thrown-out meat.

The girl much-preferred cats and other animals to humans. Animals were much more interesting.

Then again, so were the giant robots, who were now barely a mile away.

Wouldn't it be interesting, the girl thought as she watched them, if she could meet them?

**Well, there ya' go. Not the best ending to a chapter, not very exciting. Sorry. It'll get WAY more interesting as the story goes on, I promise! More chapters to come! Soon, I hope...**


	2. Chapter 2

**YO! I'm so glad you like my so-far-only-one-chapter sequel! Sorry it took so long. A lot of our fish have recently died, making me sad, and I dedicate this chapter to them. Also, I'll try to make this fanfic the best that I can! Sorry about how slow it is so far, it'll get better!**

**To TransFanFreak101: Yes, a new adventure it does be! Hahahahaha, I dunno why it's funny for a person to run into a wall, but it is. Please recover. :) **

**To Iceshadow911247: Haha, yay! I'm so pleased that you're excited about my fanfic! No, I've been refusing to watch the rest of the episodes, ever since what happened to poor Dreadwing: GAH, I hate that part of the episode. I stopped watching half-way through 'cause I was so unhappy. Hmm, yes; you are perceptive. The girl is much like me, mwahaha! Um, I'll see what I can do, but I'm not good at giving advice. Also depends on what the idea is about. Thanks.**

**To Mayday200: Wow, really? I'd have loved to see that reaction! Wow, thank you so much! He says you're welcome. Hahaha, oh yes indeed, I'd love to! I prank my family every last-day of summer, so I enjoy crazy reigns-of-terror. AAWWWWW, thank you so much! I will try to get time to read your fanfics and theirs when I can. Thanks again!**

**To MusicalPrime: Yeah, I thought I'd just leave it at that point with a cliffhanger. Plus I wasn't sure what his reaction would've been _exactly_, but he was shocked and pleased. Thanks! Thank you for commenting!**

The girl gently stroked her cat-friend's ears, which had long ago been ripped during a fight to protect Lightray from another male, Alcatraz. The girl had given all the cats names, and she knew all their personalities as well as a human could.

Phaser had been her loyal friend ever since she took him away from a kill-shelter, when his time had been almost up. He was still young in cat-years, maybe two or three in human-years.

Lightray was Phaser's mate, about the same age, and part of her left front leg had been amputated after it been accidentally run over by a car. After the feline's recovery, the girl had adopted her from the shelter just before Phaser had been imprisoned there.

Alcatraz was more of an acquaintance to the girl. He was sneaky and fierce, a dark gray color with small black splotches, and had black markings on his face that looked like a bandit's mask. Thus, the name Alcatraz.

Said-feline now seemed more interested in Lightray's aggressive sister, Mreagk, and vice versa. She had stripe-y calico markings on her creamy-white and light-brown fur, and was named for how her belligerent, growling 'meow' sounded when she got mad.

There were several other cats and dogs, but most of them were out hunting or scavenging right now. Or resting, having naps in the thought-to-be abandoned apartment, which was where the girl lived and did her best to care for the animals.

She glanced over to see a thick-furred, black-and-white female husky approaching. The dog growled at Phaser, pushing her ears forward threateningly. The silvery cat hissed in reply, fur bristling.

The girl lowered her head and growled a rebuking tone at the two.

"_No_, Coni," the girl stated firmly, "_No_, Phaser. No fighting." The dog, Coni, drooped her ears and tail and sat down, whining.

The girl'd figured that Coni'd been someone's pet before, seeing how human-trained she seemed, and she scratched behind the husky's ears and petted her back.

"_Good _girl," she praised, "Goood girl." Coni wagged her tail in appreciation.

The girl turned her attention back to the fight, which was getting closer. She knew that it was still too far away for anyone in town to hear it. Her apartment-home was located on the outermost fringes of a long-empty section of town that'd been abandoned, so there were no other humans around to bother her most of the time.

As the girl tilted her head to get a better view, her necklace jingled slightly. It wasn't a piece of jewelry though. Instead of a glittery, dainty little wire with gems on it, her necklace was an old, slightly stiff, thin metal chain from a thrown-away old necklace.

On it were three things. One was the metal piece that come from one of the huge robots and gashed her eye. She'd kept it as a reminder (and a cool souvenir) which had turned out to be quite useful! She could saw through chain link fences with it, cut off chunks of rat meat for the animals, and could even dig with it.

Another object were a simple pair of scissors. She used these for cutting her jagged nails, and some of the animals' fur. In fact, thanks to the her trimming Coni's fur really short, she'd helped the thick-furred dog not overheat in the hot weather.

And, her magnifying glass. She'd had a fascination with burning designs into leaves when she was back at her old home, but now she used it for starting little tiny fires for keeping warm on the nights when it was chilly and when she was feeling bored. And occasionally burning designs into a leaf or two.

But playing with fire was the last thing on her mind right then. Loud crashes brought her attention to the fact that two of the robots had gotten closer, and were still battling ferociously.

Some of the animals hissed or growled in worry, starting to retreat from the apartment in favor of a refuge that was farther away from the battling giants. Phaser, though he must've been frightened, stayed by the girl's side, quivering nervously.

The girl gently caressed his ears, back, and under his chin, managing to sooth her friend a little. But he gave a yowl of alarm as there was suddenly a huge crash. Something cracked against the girl's head, which had been turned away from the window to comfort Phaser.

She lurched forward, then scrambled to her feet, noting that the remaining glass in the window had been smashed, as had several of the inner bricks, one of which had a speck of her head-blood on it.

But what truly shocked and terrified the girl… was the fact that one of the giant robots had just _crashed into her apartment home's wall!_

That, and the fact that it's huge head was only a few feet away from her now!

Yeah it was turned away, but still.

**Gah, I was hoping to make this chapter come out betterrrrr! Sorry I focused so much on the cats, I just love animals and making up names for them! So, I'll try Try TRY to update sooner. Ok?**


	3. Chapter 3

**YO! ...That's all there is fer' news.**

**To ****Mayday200****: Haha, I WILL try to update sooner. Oh no, don't send Megatron on me; I'd be squishled! YAY, I be so muchly glad ye like the names!**

**To ****TransFanFreak101****: Hahaha. Yeah, having a giant robot slam into one's ramshackle home of cats and dogs can be very scary! Heh heh. **

**To ****Iceshadow911247****: O.O Please... do not call me "woman," I much prefer being a kid... Ok, ok! It be most of the TFPrime Autobots and Decepticons. (You must be quite powerful to be able to stalk someone with the power of a thousand burning suns!) Ok, then update I shall!**

**To ****KittlyLuv168****: Thanks! I do indeed muchly loves da kudos! You seem to be a very thorough reader; Many kudos to you! I'll try to update soon. Thanks for reviewing!**

The girl ducked down after a shocked moment of surprise, terrified that the giant blue robot might see her.

A new fear slammed through her mind, sending panic and adrenaline shooting through her, from spine to fingertips to bare toes.

The building wall was beginning to crumble under the enormous metal creature's weight, and fragments of bricks and sand were raining through the cracks. If the pressure didn't stop...

Her home might entirely collapse! With her and the animals still inside!

Abandoning all thoughts of safety for herself, the girl jumped up again, shooing the remaining animals out of the second-story room and down the stairs. Once there, the clever beings instinctively raced for cover, vanishing into empty alleys and other decrepit buildings.

The girl then raced back inside, checking every room to make sure that all the animals had escaped. The enormous robot had gotten up by then, but was still battling with an even bulkier, green-ish robot, and still far too close to the girl's home.

A frantic "mreaaaoowl"ing sound jolted the girl's heart, and she whipped open a partially-closed door, finding Lightray, pacing around hers -and Phaser's- four little kittens, who were still too young to run for safety.

Phaser, still loyally by the girl's side, dashed into the room, nuzzling his beloved mate reassuringly, then nudged one of his babies and stared up at the girl, emerald eyes entreating.

"Of course, buddy," she promised him, nodding, "I'll help you with your little ones. They'll be safe." Hearing the affirmation in her voice, Phaser bobbed his head in agreement and picked up the nearest kitten, a light gray female with brown stripes and big blue eyes.

Lightray picked up a gray, male kitten with brown patches and dark amber eyes, allowing the girl to gently pick up the last two: a pale brown female with eyes like Phaser's, and a silvery male with white stripes and blue-ish green eyes.

The girl and adult cats rushed down the stairs and out the door, carrying the adorably fluffy kittens outside to safety. Once outside, the girl led them to an abandoned old house across the street and to the right, carefully placing the little ones on the ground by their parents.

"Be safe," she told Phaser and Lightray, then turned and ran back to hide behind her now-decrepit apartment, hoping to continue observing the unbelievable battle. She also planned to distract the robots if they tried to hurt any of the animals hiding nearby. She doubted the giant creatures would even notice the animals, but still.

The song "Attack" popped into her mind as she crept closer, watching the huge metal beings fight. She was amazed by the speed and agility one of them-a relatively small blue one- employed, swiping with apparently-retractable blades, and evading the spiny, bug-like opponent's attacks with incredible grace.

A bright crimson and white robot fought a gold-yellow one with big light-blue mechanical-eye-things, striking and narrowly missing with... what looked like a bladed pizza-cutter, and the yellow one retaliated with a blast from a cannon, which then shifted into an arm.

What looked like a huge, dark silvery-purple feline leaped into the scuffle, biting the yellow robot's arm and shaking it viciously. The yellow one made loud beeping sounds as the robotic feline growled something.

It sounded like "Hkai-cweck! Yih khild Hkai-cweck! Gigngt hahc kuh!" The feline, it's mouth full of metal-arm, growled again, and let go, then raced away toward the huge blue robot who'd fallen on the girl's building.

The feline rammed into one of the spiny, bug-like robot's pointy legs, causing it to fall over as the mechanical feline rushed past with what sounded like a snarl. Then the robotic cat leaped onto the huge blue robot's shoulder, swiping at the giant green one who looked like a bowling ball with arms.

The large blue one nodded to the feline, then one of- no, it's _only_ eye widened: it had seen the girl. She stiffened as the robotic feline whipped around to stare at her too, and she raced away as the mechanical cat leaped off of it's ally's shoulder, sprinting towards her.

'It's a cat,' the girl thought desperately to herself as she gasped for breath, arms and legs pumping, 'Maybe it won't like unfamiliar things, like human-buildings!'

She turned toward the nearest empty building, preparing to dash inside, slam the door, and hide in an upper room.

But instead, she yelped in surprise as something darted from behind her and whipped her legs out from under her, causing the girl to land painfully in the rock-hard dirt.

She rolled over, arms tensed for a fight, but the robotic feline was right above her, and pinned the girl's arms to the ground, which burned her skin.

The girl recoiled, arms and legs thrashing uselessly, eyes huge and glaring in fury as she hissed in defiance, mouth wide and teeth bared at the feline who'd tripped her to the ground. Said-feline narrowed it's golden robot-eye-things, leaned it's head closer, and...

Spoke!

**Hey, should the next bit, in the next chappy-ter, be in Caterwaul's point of view, or the girl's?**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hi! I been listenin' to different versions of "The Phantom Of The Opera," (the CD, the movie-movie, and the play-movie)** **and I swear, Carlotta gets more and more annoying every time. Now, on to the reviews!**

**To ****TransFanFreak101****: Hahaha, yes! Indeed she spoke! Yeah, I planned on having it in Caterwaul's point a' view, and I be muchly glad to see that yee agree!**

**To ****Iceshadow911247****: Ah, that you are. Yep, the very song. Yes she can. Eh, understandable; everyone has their opinion, and Caterwaul ain't perfect, nor is anyone else. **

**And now, the chapter! (Sorry the usernames aren't underline, the computer won't let me!)**

"Get out of here!" Caterwaul hissed, golden optics narrowing.

The human girl, still pinned beneath the feline's front claws, thrashed from side to side and started kicking at her furiously, teeth bared in fury.

"Let me up!" the girl snarled loudly at her, though Caterwaul's sensitive leopard-nose could smell her terror.

"If I let you up," Caterwaul growled cautiously, secretly surprised that the human hadn't screamed or cried, or done anything to suggest the fear which she must've felt, "Will you leave? Get out of here and mention nothing of this to anyone?"

"Yes!" the girl shouted at her, still writhing and glaring, "Now lemme go!"

Carefully, Caterwaul stepped off of the human's shoulders, allowing her to stand. Getting a better look at the human, Caterwaul was even more surprised.

The human female wore a strange looking necklace dangling from her neck, and had a wrinkled, slightly ragged gray shirt on, with dots of reddish brown on the sleeves, sides, and collar. A pair of equally-ragged shorts completed the simple outfit, also dotted with reddish brown here and there.

The girl's brown hair was stringy, and streaked with thin patches of stiff , dark reddish color. A thick scar across her left optic- eye, Caterwaul corrected herself- stood out against the smaller, fainter scars on the girl's scrawny arms and legs.

Said-girl stared back at Caterwaul for a moment, eyes gauging escape routes and weak points. Then, with a quick glance to the side, she darted away, racing through the doorway of an abandoned building to her left, clutching a sharp piece of pointed metal in one hand.

Annoyed and surprised that the human had merely hidden in a building, instead of running away into the relatively safe town, Caterwaul growled, then ran after her.

Inside, the old building was crumbling and decrepit, directly across the non-existent road from the building that Breakdown had been thrown into. Caterwaul growled for a second, continuing to bound after the human.

Incredibly, the human girl seemed completely fine dodging around long cobwebs, skipping over debris, and leaping up broken stair-steps with ease.

What truly puzzled Caterwaul, was that the human did it barefoot.

Stepping on rough concrete and sharp rocks littered with dusty debris didn't seem to bother the human, who barely stumbled when her right heel landed on a piece of sharp stone. A few seconds later, it started leaving little reddish brown smudges on the ground.

Caterwaul bounded after the girl, who turned her head to snarl back at her threateningly. Finally, the human stopped at the third and last floor of the old building, easily catching her breath by a dusty window.

She glanced out said-window, frowned, and wiped away some of the dust with her arm. She rubbed her arm on her shirt, then looked out the window again.

The girl turned to glare suspiciously at Caterwaul, and questioned, "Why are you following me? I _left_! I'm not interfering with yer' big fight-thing-whatever-it-is! SO why're you following me?!"

"Because humans aren't supposed to see us!" Caterwaul hissed.

The girl cocked one eyebrow, and asked in a sarcastically childish voice, "Wow, so you're like fairies?"

Caterwaul scowled, "Nnnno. Besides, it's dangerous near a battle, especially for a tiny little human."

"Yeah, yeah," the humn rolled her eyes, "Well I'm not _near_ your crazy battle. I'm just watching. Besides, I wouldn't tell anyone- well, maybe my sister- and nobody else woud believe me anyway."

"And it looks like the fight's just about over anyway," she added, pointing to where the Autobots had vanished and where the Decepticons were starting to leave.

"Huh," the girl muttered, "I thought there was a red one before... Where'd it go...?"

As if in answer, a huge, pointed hand smashed through the window, scattering pieces of glass and reaching for the girl.

**Oooh, cheesey cliffhanger! Sorry. I know this chapter wasn't very long either; I'll do way better next time. It gets funnier too! ...Pwease weview? *puppydog stare***


	5. Chapter 5

**Hi! Here I be, with another chapter for yee! **

**To TransFanFreak101: Yes! My puppydog-eyes worked! And yes, it be Knockout. Thank you very much for reviewing!**

**To Iceshadow911247: Yay! Your "YESSSSSS! :D" is muchly appreciated! Yep, I do indeed like The Phantom Of The Opera. Hahah- what?! There's a sequel?! OH MY GOODNESS I MUST WATCH IT AS SOON AS I FINISH TYPING THIS CHAPTER! Yay, it be a marvelous band. Haha, yeah, I try to throw in a little bit of weird, random humor when I can. Yep, it's Knockout all right! Thank you sooo much for continuing to review! Most of the other reviewers have just vanished from reviewing this fanfic.**

**To smoshoholic123: Thank you very much! I will try. And thank you very very much for reviewing!**

The girl screeched in terror and fury as the huge, pointy mechanical hand closed around her, pinning her arms to her sides.

Rat poop! Now she couldn't stab it with her metal blade!

The robotic feline near her backed up in surprise as bricks and ancient cement crumbled away from the shattered window, raining down on the dusty floor. One of the pieces of rubble fell on the robotic cat's foot, and the girl pondered for a split second whether she should feel smug or sympathetic.

Then the girl was yanked out of the room by the enormous metal hand, gasping in pain as jagged glass and rough bricks raked against her skin, leaving deep scrapes and bleeding cuts along her shoulders, legs, hands, and head, yanking hair out of her messy ponytail.

Pushing her discomfort to the back of her mind, the girl struggled to break free, even after noticing that she was about thirty feet up in the air. Broken bones from a fall would be better than who-knew-what the huge, crimson robot had in store for her.

The girl squirmed around, growling and hissing in the mechanical creature's firm grasp, which was way too tight and making it difficult to breathe.

Said-creature moved it's hand closer to it's pointy white face, as if to examine the girl, black-and-red eyes curious and yet somehow disdainful of her. The girl narrowed her own eyes at it and hissed like a cat, baring her teeth and scrunching up her face.

"Caterwaul," the robot –a male by the sound of the voice, which had an interesting accent- asked the mechanical feline, "What is this?"

The dark silvery purple feline, Caterwaul, retorted, "_She_ is a human girl, Knockout. What else would she be?"

'Knockout' shrugged indifferently, expression thoughtful, "Well, an interesting captive for one thing. Come on, we have to be going now; Breakdown was wondering where you'd gotten to."

A tiny smile seemed to flicker across Caterwaul's face for a second, then was quickly hidden as she leaped out of the building, landing neatly on the ground. The girl noticed that Caterwaul's tri-bladed tail tip left thin furrows in the brick wall, showing just a fraction of how dangerous that tail must be.

The scarlet robot twisted his hand around to contemplate the girl again, then placed her on the ground, immediately shoving a huge pile of heavy rubble on top of the girl so that she couldn't run away.

Then, to the girl's amazement and fascination, the crimson robot seemed to shift, twist, and collapse into himself, rearranging his entire body into a sleek red sports car.

Or racecar; the girl had never known much about car-types.

Then the vehicle rolled toward where the girl was pinned beneath the rubble, and opened the door nearest to her. Caterwaul, looking rather unhappy about it, pushed her inside, despite the girl's frantic kicking, clawing, and flailing around in desperate and random spasms.

The instant she was inside the vermilion car, on the right back seat, the door snapped shut. And locked.

The girl thought that this was a little redundant. But, dismissing the quick thought, she continued her infuriated shrieking and pounded on the door's window with all her strength. She'd often wondered if a person could break a glass window with their fists…

Nope. The window's glass didn't bend, crack, or break. Meaning that all she got for her efforts were aching fingers and a rising sense of panic. She screamed in frustration, instead of in the hope that someone would hear-they were too far away from the inhabited part of the town for that.

Then, the girl remembered her metal blade, which hung patiently on the thin chain that she kept around her neck. With renewed hope, she smacked at the window with her blade, brandishing it like a sword.

As the scarlet car started driving forward, she scraped at the window with all her might, only managing to create a tiny, pathetically shallow nick in the glass. Interestingly, this caused the vehicle- Knockout, right?- to complain loudly.

"Hey, hey!" he protested, "Watch it! Do you have _any_ idea how difficult it is to keep those in top condition?!"

"No, actually, I don't," the girl retorted blandly, pausing for a moment, "Nor do I _care_. But I'll gladly stop if you let me go!"

"No," Knockout refused, "I don't believe I'll do anything of the sort. In fact, when we get back, you will be picking up every single tiny piece and putting them all back together!"

The girl actually enjoyed difficult puzzles like that, and had to stop herself from replying eagerly, "Cool!" Instead, she growled at the vehicle, hitting the window with her fist again, just to spite him.

"And who knows?" the crimson robot-vehicle continued thoughtfully, "It might be interesting to have a pet."

"I am not a _pet_, you idiot! I'm a human being!" the girl shouted indignantly at him, "And besides, you already have a big pet cat!"

Now it was Caterwaul's turn to be indignant.

"WHAT?!" she yowled, living up to her name as she ran alongside the scarlet vehicle, "I'm _nobody's_ pet! And if I didn't _hate_ the way that humans taste, I'd come in there and bite you!"

The girl scrunched up her face in a bizarre scowl, quirking her mouth to one side, squinting one eye, and rolling both eyes up in a partially grossed-out, partially miffed-looking expression.

Then she shrugged it off and continued whacking the window with her blade, making a faintly deeper cut in the weirdly strong glass.

This caused Knockout to whack her with one of his front seats, and to snidely inform her that even if she managed to get out, he could easily just catch her again. And 'accidentally' cause unnecessary harm to her squishy little self.

So the girl scowled and wiped her foot-blood on his fancy leather seat.

**This was a fun chapter to write and type. :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**WOOHOOOOO! I am so happy right now! We recently adopted another little fuzzy ferret! And now she and our fuzzy chase one another and dook and sometimes squeak! Oh the adorableness! If there's anything cuter out there, it could probably stop a war. Or start one over which cute thing is cuter...**

**To ****Guest****: Haha, yeah. Foot-blood. Probably, 'xcept he probably doesn't know what human blood is. Thank you for reviewing!**

**To ****Iceshadow911247****: Ehh... I tried that link, and the computer keeps saying it ain't there, phooey; I shall keep trying. Erm, interesting and... exuberant. Yep, she did. Hahaha, me too. I'll try! Also, as a side note, I looked up the "Love Never Dies," and it seemed- from Wikipedia- to be more dark (and sort of insane) than "Phantom Of The Opera," which interestingly I had a dream about last night.**

**To ****smoshaholic123****: Yes she does indeed be brave. Thanks!**

**And now, the chapter!**

After a minute or so, the trio- Knockout driving smoothly, the girl scowling, and Caterwaul running nearby- came into view of the other vehicle-robots, who were all driving in a spread-out group.

When she spotted them, Caterwaul let out a small cheer, and bounded ahead, then slowed so that she could race alongside a dark blue jeep. Knockout let out a snicker as the feline rubbed her head on the blue vehicle's door.

"What's so funny, killer robot-car?" the girl asked, to which he responded with a chuckle, "Just Caterwaul and Breakdown. They don't even _attempt_ to hide it, do they?"

"Breakdown? Is that the blue car?" the girl asked, and Knockout nodded by slightly bouncing up and down on his wheels.

The girl squinted her scarred left eye and peered ahead with her right. Ever since she'd gotten that scar, her left eye'd had lousy long-distance vision, but seemed to be able to see up-close things in remarkable detail.

As she leaned herself forward between the front seats, the crimson car sped up, and (accidentally?) drove over a mid-sized rock, causing the car to lurch and the girl to lose her balance and smack her face onto the dashboard.

"Akkhhh," she hissed as she pulled herself back up, then bent her head forwards. Barely a second later, a red droplet landed on the seat beneath her. Then another. And then another.

The girl shook her head, spattering blood from her nose in a scattered arc around the ceiling and sides of her captor's interior.

"_What_ are you _doing_?" he asked, sounding confused and slightly disgusted.

"My nose is bleeding, thank-you-very-much," the girl retorted.

"What is 'bleeding'?" the scarlet vehicle inquired.

"It's red body-liquid drippin' outta my _face_! That's what!" the girl snapped, emphasizing her words with head-twitches, which caused more blood to flick onto the side of the door.

"Ughh," Knockout complained, "Don't get it on _me_!"

"Well where else am I to _put_ it?" his prisoner asked tartly. Actually, she would've been fine wiping her blood away with her shirt, which had countless old blood-stains all over it, but she wanted to continue to enjoy sassing her captor.

Having tried to never sass her parents or sister at home, or anyone at school, this was a novel experience, and was proving to be quite fun!

"Anywhere except myself," Knockout stated in response to the girl's question, and rolled down his front right window.

The girl scrambled into the front seat and stuck her head out, ready to leap out and escape. Freedom would be worth a few scrapes and gashes.

Just one problem. They were too far away from the town for her to see it, and the hardened ground wasn't very good for leaving good tire-tracks on.

Plus, as Knockout had mentioned before, he could just capture her again. And that would probably be very bad. The girl had no urge to be chased by a deadly robot with pointy claws and a giant pizza-cutter saw blade.

All she wanted to do was go back home! Was that too much to ask?

Home was safe- well, relatively safe. Home was big and familiar. Home had cats and dogs all over the place. Home did not have gigantic robots who wanted to kidnap her.

At least back at the apartment, she was able to leave when she chose to. Not necessarily when she wanted, because she usually had to wait until dark, so that she could sneak through the human-populated section of town to scavenge food.

There, she could get easy food from restaurant dumpsters, and plenty of water from garden hoses. And, if she was really hungry, she could find and kill a rat and share it with some of the cats.

She missed the animals already. Phaser... Lightray... Their four yet-to-be-named kittens... Coni... Mreagk... Alcatraz... Sketch and Phantom, two cat brothers who were reclusive and good at sneaking around for prey...

Jabberwocky, a big, light brown golden-retriever-y male dog who was stubborn but great at finding fresh road kill... Vorpal, the turkey-vulture who constantly tried to chase Jabberwocky away from said-road kill...

Oh, if only she could escape and get back home!

And so, feeling greatly frustrated, the girl huffed and flopped her head over her arms, which she kept crossed on the bottom of the open window, her stringy brown hair writhing around in the wind.

Well, now that her moping was done, the girl felt distinctly bored.

So, she dipped one finger into the small puddle of blood on the seat, and wiped it on the front window, squiggling it in an "e" shape. Then a "v" shape... Then a...

Within moments, the windshield had a warning title to any future observers: 'evil robot-car.' The girl was surprised that the vehicle hadn't felt her writing in blood on his windshield, but maybe he didn't have nerve-endings or whatever in his windows.

The girl was wondering about this idea, when suddenly, an enormous, swirling greenish vortex whooshed into existence, a few meters ahead of the front of the other vehicles.

It was just like the one that she and Phaser had seen on the day that they first saw the giant robots!

Except that this time, it was right in front of her!

**Hi! The reason that it's taken so long for the groundbridge to be activated, is that the 'Cons wanted to make sure that they were out of sight and that no Autobots were following them. Just wanted to explain in case anybody was wondering.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hi. One of our fish died recently, and I named her Honor. And now that I have told you of this, on to the reviews!**

**ToIceshadow911247****: Dunno why the link not be workin'. Hmmm. Ok then. I shall watch "Love Never Dies" when I get the chance. Also hmm, ok, I'll skip that song, thank you for the warning! Hahaha haha, well yes, the humans **_**can**_** be quite obnoxious, and a couple of the TFs (Optimus mostly) do look like their faces are missing something, but those aren't logical reasons to not watch the awesomeness! (Wait, did I just say 'logical'? Oh my goodness I'm acting like G1 Prowl! Or Shockwave. Hey, what'd happen if they were locked in a room with lots of illogical things there? Would they spontaneously combust or start freaking out?) I was gonna have the girl write 'stupid robot car,' but changed it. Hahaha, I'd love to see that, and the sunglasses just make it even funnier!**

**To ****zrexheartz****: Hello! Thanks for reviewing! Yay, I'm so glad that you liked it; the sassing was really fun to write about! Neat picture, my sister loves the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Also, thank you again, I appreciate your sending a review!**

**To ****Mayday200****: Heh heh, I think so too, even though he **_**is**_** a really cool Transformer. NO! NOT BY ANY STRETCH OF INSANITY OR IMAGINATION IN ALL OF THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE AND/ OR PARALLEL DIMENSIONS AM I A WITCHDOCTOR; I do NOT believe in that sort of thing! Aww, I'm sorry about your injuries! That happened to me on a sidewalk once, ouch; hope ya get healed up soon. Yeah, the ferrets are truly adorable little fuzzy beings. Aww, I wish the little munchkins could be allowed as pets there. They're like cats mixed with squirrels: adorable and vicious!**

**And now, the chappy-ter!**

"Woah!" the girl exclaimed at the sight of the whirling green vortex, "What is that?!"

"That," her captor answered with a smirk in his voice, "is a ground-bridge. And we are travelling through it so as to return to the ship."

Ship? Liiiiiikkke... a spaceship or something?

'Well,' the girl decided, 'if it is, I'll probably _never_ be able to escape then! Forget that stupid threat-warning of the car catching me again, I'm outta here!'

And with this desperate thought, she leapt out the still-open window!

...Problem was, the girl's robotic kidnapper had realized her intent to escape, and started rolling the window shut.

So, just before her hands could touch the ground, the window closed tightly on the girl's right ankle, keeping her securely held in place.

She screamed in surprise and pain as the weirdly-strong glass dug into her skin and muscle, pinching agonizingly as she swung back, whacking against the outside of the crimson vehicle's door.

The girl squeezed her eyes shut and clamped her mouth closed, restraining her pained moans. She yanked her arms away from the hard, rocky ground rushing past, flashing past barely an inch away from her face!

Gritting her teeth, the girl pushed her hands against the door, shoving herself up and away from the rough terrain. Then she walked her hands backwards up the door, inching her way onto the roof, where she kneeled awkwardly, her right ankle still in the car window's crushing grip. It'd most certainly leave a bruise or two.

"You're not getting away anytime soon, human," the vehicle –what was his name again?- informed her smugly, then added, "Though it would be better for you to remain hidden inside my vehicle form. Not all of my associates are as merciful as I am."

The girl let out a derisive "Ha!" and smacked the window with her hand. She didn't want to risk using her blade and dropping it.

There wasn't time for that anyway. Just a second later, the girl and her kidnapper went into the enormous, swirling portal.

Inside was breathtaking, unlike anything she'd ever thought possible. It was like being inside a vast, glowing, horizontal whirlpool!

It felt like being bombarded all over by a hundred garden hoses on the 'jet' setting, all the way through her bones! It was terrifying and nerve wracking and completely amazing.

As they emerged from the spinning vortex, the scarlet vehicle slowed to a halt, spinning in a quick semi-circle as he stopped and the portal disappeared. Then he rolled down the window with the girl's foot stuck inside, releasing it.

And he promptly leaned to one side, causing the girl to slip and fall right off, and onto the hard, metal floor of what must've been the ship he'd mentioned earlier.

The girl yelped as she landed in a jumbled heap, then quickly sat up and clutched her ankle, the one that'd been trapped in the window. _Goodness_, it hurt!

She gritted her teeth and set her foot back on the ground, then completely ignored it- and the throbbing pain- as she tried to look strong and defiant, instead of weak and afraid.

The crimson vehicle shifted and realigned, then stood up, once more in robotic form. It annoyed the girl to realize how very small she was compared to him.

She glanced around, noticing several other huge robots staring down at her. There was the cat, the large blue-ish robot with a missing eye, and several smaller purple robots.

"_What,_" the girl stated icily, glaring at everyone around her, her blue-gray eyes dark.

"Knockout," asked the huge blue robot, "Why did you bring a _human_ here?" He looked disgusted at the sight of the girl, who scowled back at him. She quickly redirected her glare back to Knockout as he began speaking.

"I supposed that it may prove to be useful somehow." He smirked, "Maybe for target-practice."

The girl was about to jump up and hit his leg with her blade, but stopped when something furry nudged her shoulder from behind. It was the feline.

"He doesn't mean it," she growled, addressing the girl but narrowing her gold eyes at Knockout, who twitched slightly.

"Anyway," the feline continued, much more calmly, "Since you're here, you might as well know who everyone is."

The girl shrugged one shoulder. "Myeh. Ok, I guess."

"Well," the robotic cat told her, "The vain racing-fanatic is Knockout, as you know. I'm Caterwaul, as he told you. This-" –she nodded to the blue robot- "-is Breakdown."

Breaksdown continued glaring at the girl and crossed his arms. The girl pouted, and thought that there were a couple robots missing. Where'd that creepy spider-thing gone?

The girl mentally shrugged to herself. Whatever.

"And Soundwave is... somewhere around here," Caterwaul finished with a shrug.

"Who are they?" the girl inquired, pointing to the several nearly-identical purple-ish robots, whose faces were silver, with a red slit where eyes would've been.

"Those are vehicon drones," Caterwaul explained with a detached nod in the vehicons' direction, a sort of indifferent-yet-polite expression on her face.

The girl frowned. She turned her head to look at the vehicons, and noticed something.

"Weren't there more of you during that battle?" she inquired, and one or two nodded. The girl noticed the huge dents, torn metal, and sparking wires all over them.

Those looked like very painful wounds.

"Ouch," she whispered in sympathy, not caring that the injured were of the same race as the robot who'd kidnapped her, "Did the others go to get repaired or something?"

"No," stated one of them.

Just then, as the girl tried to push away the only other possibility she could think of, an enormous, shiny gray robot strode into the room.

The authoritative stance indicated that he was probably the leader, and one who demanded respect.

And the highly displeased, angry grimace on his dark gray face, vermillion eyes narrowed dangerously, implied that he was not in a mood to be bothered, or trifled with (whatever 'trifled with' meant).

Caterwaul casually glanced at him over her shoulder, unconcerned.

"Oh yeah," she observed nonchalantly, "I _knew_ I'd forgotten _someone_."


	8. Chapter 8

**Halloooo! How is you? Little rhyming there. Now, to the reviews!**

**To ****zrexheartz****: Yay! Yay, I'm so glad that you like the chapter AND the character! Thanks. Ok, sure; I'll do that now. ... She says "M'kay. Don't worry, I won't take him away from you. But I might steal Raph. Or Donny." Eh, I don't really know what she's talking about. Thanks fer' reviewing!**

**To ****Iceshadow911247****: Thank you for being sympathetic about my fish, I really appreciate it. Heh heh, me neither, but it'd probably make a funny fanfic. Haha, yes, yes they do; I dunno how, but they do. Yep. *I join you in fleeing, but then start throwing rotten tomatoes at Megsy.* Thanks fer' reviewin'!**

**Now for the chapter...**

Most of the huge robots all greeted the larger gray-ish one with... well, _relatively_ respectful greetings. The blue one nodded and gave a small bow. The purple ones gave much deeper, almost fearful bows. Knockout gave a fancier, though nervous, bow.

Caterwaul just looked at the gray-ish colossus with a bored expression in her gold eyes.

The enormous, silvery mechanical being ignored Caterwaul, and instead looked down at the girl with apparent distain and annoyance. He had the attitude of 'you are beneath my interest but in my way, so now I'll have to acknowledge your existence with as much contempt as I can.'

The girl edged away a couple inches, but managed a quick second of eye-contact.

The gigantic creature glared down at the girl, then turned to glower at the others, who all immediately pointed at Knockout. The girl noticed that her confident scarlet kidnapper seemed far less cocky than he had before.

"Get yourself out of _this_ one, Speedy," the girl heard Caterwaul chuckle quietly.

The huge, silvery robot jabbed out one huge claw to point at the girl, glared silently at Knockout, and growled very slowly, very dangerously, "_**Why**__...?_"

Knockout shifted nervously, glancing away and stammering, "Er, I um, well you see..." Caterwaul slipped out of the room and returned a moment later, carrying what look suspiciously like metal popcorn.

She popped some into her mouth, watching with interest as Knockout managed to make a nervous reply. "We, um, thought it might be useful?"

"We?" Caterwaul snapped, just as the enormous gray robot roared, "Useful?! How could a puny little human be of _any_ use to us?! Have you forgotten what that last one did?! It filled almost my entire _ship_ with that... that 'ssgunk' stench! We had to clean the stink out with all that red glop! Which all of you have s_till_ not gotten completely rid of!"

''Ssgunk'?' the girl thought, 'Does he mean 'skunk'? And what's he mean 'last one'? Great, I'm doomed.' She turned her attention back to Knockout.

"That wasn't my fault!" the crimson robot yelped in reply to the furious gray-ish robot, "But perhaps we could use this human for... uh... umm..." The girl could see that he was desperate to think of anything.

"Err... target practice!" Knockout finished, remembering his earlier,half- joking idea.

"It would only be good for one shot," the silvery gray giant retorted.

"Uh, tests! To see what weaknesses humans have!"

"Besides being stepped on or shot?" the other questioned pointedly.

"Chocolate!" the girl suggested, "We humans have a terrible weakness for chocolate."

Ignoring the girl's input, and having no idea what 'chocolate' was, Knockout continued, "Or information! Spying on the Autobots and their humans?"

'What're 'Autobots'?' the girl wondered, equally confused by the brief mention of other humans. Almost none of this argument made any sense to her.

"Hm," the gigantic, aggressive robot growled, but seemed less likely to kill the desperate smaller one, who continued excitedly, "A slave! It could clean the ship, and gets dirt and rocks out of our armor!"

At this point, Knockout must've run out of plausible ideas, because he stopped talking and looked up at the far more massive gray robot pleadingly.

"Hm," the larger one stated, "Bring it here." (**He secretly just wanted to see how the human would react, but wasn't about to tell anyone that.**)

Knockout quickly reached out to snatch the girl, but she leaped back, stumbling and scrambling back up within two seconds. She leaned back on stiff, straight legs, standing on her toes and raising her shoulders like a cat raises it's hackles.

She even bared her teeth and hissed, making Knockout pull back and stare at Caterwaul, wondering if there were suddenly two of the aggressive feline.

He turned to look back at the girl, who hissed, "Back off! It's not _my_ fault you're in trouble; you're the one who dragged me into this! Touch me and I'll slice yer' fingers off!" She swiped her metal blade at his hand to emphasize her point.

Then, the girl stalked past him and up to the enormous gray-ish robot, crossing her arms and leaning back on one foot.

"Waddaya want?" she asked testily, "If ya want me to leave, I will _gladly_ do so! If you're gonna kill me or something, then can we please just get it over with?"

The gigantic metal titan stared down at the girl, who was scarcely as tall as his foot, and quite easily kill-able. And yet, here she was, showing quite a temper, and even a flicker of humor.

"... It can stay," he announced.

**Sorry for how much shorter this chapter is. I'll try to make the next one better.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Yo! Here I be to update! Not much news here. Uh, our ferrets seem to be getting along better, which is both good and unbelievably adorable! And now the answers to the reviews of wonderfully reviewing reviewers!**

**To ****zrexheartz****: Yep. Thanks! She really appreciates it! And by the way, you'll get to find out the girl's name soon! It gets annoying to only be able to call her 'the girl.'**

**To ****Iceshadow911247****: Hahahaha, you sound like Doctor Who in the first episode with Donna! Nope, he's just intrigued by the bizarre human who is now on his ship. And, if he didn't let her stay, then I would have no fanfic! It'd just end in this gooey little mess of dead human. And that would not be a good ending to my fanfic, eh?**

**To ****Abyss Prime****: Yay, I made ya laugh! Oh, I'm so glad! I shall indeed keep it up! Cool username by the way, and thanks fer' reviewing!**

**And now...! The chapter!**

'Is it a good thing or a bad thing that I'm staying?' the girl wondered to herself, unsure, but also relieved that the humungous gray-ish robot hadn't decided to squish her. But that probably would've gotten his foot-gears or whatever all gunked up with human-goop.

So she was glad that he hadn't sliced her in half. No, that would've gotten human-goop on his sword. So she was glad that he hadn't shot her. Wow, she realized, there certainly are a lot of ways I could die here... Oh well. One life-threatening problem at a time.

Caterwaul made a quiet purring sound, pleased that the girl was going to be allowed to live. The girl fought the urge to gently scratch behind the feline's furry ears, as she would have with any of the stray cats that she knew.

Knockout, still cowering- but less so- in front of the enormous gray-ish robot, continued to look extremely nervous, as if he might get punished anyway. The girl felt a flicker of pity; she knew that look. Painfully well.

Sorry sorry sorry sad scared scared don't yell at me sorry sorry scared!

At her house... Bad days, angry parent, yelling, blaming... Her sister had been scared. She'd been so scared and sad when there was yelling.

Sad, sad, afraid, sad, scared, sad, angry, sad, sad, sad...

The girl remembered her sister telling her "I'm scared," as their parents had a rare argument. They didn't often fight, but when they did, it hurt just as much as if they were yelling at her. They did that a lot too. It hurt so much.

Pain flickered in the girl's eyes as she thought of it.

Scared, sad, sad, scared, sister scared, so sad!

The girl's eyes hardened, brittle pieces of blue-gray slate.

Angry, sad, angry, hate, hate, numb, hate...

'E_nough_ of that!' the girl silently hissed to herself, 'Focus on now. _Deal_ with it.' She turned now-dull eyes to watch as the enormous gray-ish robot continued to order Knockout, snarling and gesturing with his massive claw-hands.

"_You_ will take care of your little _pet_," he growled, "and _you_ will be responsible for it! I don't care either way if it lives or dies, but keep it _out_ of my way. If not, it _will_ die. And if it causes _any _distractions, _any_ disruptions, _any_ interference, then _you_ will be held accountable! Understood?"

The girl winced slightly, remembering such 'lectures.' They used to make her feel bad. Then they got annoying. Then infuriating. And if she snapped, there'd be an even angrier lecture.

"Yes, Lord Megatron!" Knockout exclaimed, nodding vigorously, still looking frightened, but also unbelievably relieved that the reprimanding was just about over and that he was now a teeny bit safer.

The girl mentally ordered herself to stop thinking of her sister, so similar, but so much more depressed and forlorn.

The girl forced herself to stop thinking about the past and focus, focus, FOCUS on the present. 'Megatron,' she thought, 'So _that's_ what his name is. ... _Blaugh_.'

With a sneer in the girl's direction, 'Megatron' left the room, as did most of the other robots. Caterwaul and Knockout stayed, probably, the girl figured, because Caterwaul was the only one who actually cared, and Knockout was too frightened to disobey Megatron.

"Soooo..." the girl mused, nodding her head a bit, "Now what?"

"Now you will do what you are told," Knockout answered almost instantly, recovering surprisingly quickly from his earlier jitteriness.

"Yeah right," the girl snorted sarcastically, rolling her eyes, "So what exactly is it that I _shall be told_?" She made a mock-serious face at the end, eyes half-closed and jaw stretched down with a tiny pout and a head-shake.

Caterwaul smirked at the silly face, and Knockout looked rather taken-aback, so the girl smiled, her sarcastic scowl turning into a satisfied grin.

"First of all," Caterwaul chuckled to the girl before Knockout could speak, "_he_ will _not_ be taking care of you; _I_ will."

The scarlet robot looked both surprised, and very pleased, but still asked curiously, "Very well, but why is that?"

"Because you'd kill her," Caterwaul stated with a deadpan expression, "You don't know the first thing about humans, which means that this girl would be dead within a couple of days under your 'supervision,' if you can even _call_ it that."

Knockout looked slightly offended as he strolled out of the room, the girl noted, but only slightly. Meaning that Caterwaul's evaluation must've been correct. 'Great,' the girl thought to herself, 'Like I thought before, I'm doomed.'

At that moment though, she heard Knockout let out a startled exclamation, "Gah! Oh, Soundwave." A second later, the scarlet robot backed away and into the room, followed by a slim, pointy, dark indigo robot.

The girl cocked her head to one side slightly, noting the gleaming visor over Soundwave's face, the long and slender limbs, long fingers, and surprisingly silent footfalls. Delicate-looking, but with a sort of modest confidence.

Pointing in the girl's direction, Soundwave faced Knockout, and the girl was startled to hear Megatron's voice- much quieter- coming from the blue-violet robot, "_You_ will take care of your little pet, and _you_ will be responsible for it."

"Of course, Soundwave," Knockout hastily agreed, "I wouldn't even _dream_ of doing anything other than what our great lord has instructed."

"You liar!" the girl snapped at him, causing Knockout to look alarmed.

"Ah, heh heh," Knockout chuckled nervously, "It's just joking, I'm sure."

Soundwave continued silently staring at him, and then pointed at Caterwaul, just as the feline's voice came out of his visor, which lit up with squiggly line, "First of all, _he_ will _not_ be taking care of you; _I_ will."

Then Soundwave pointed back at Knockout, as the scarlet robot's voice was repeated, "Very well."

"I was the one who suggested it," Caterwaul interjected, "And I mean it. The girl won't last long here, especially with Knockout. Humans can be very fragile creatures."

"Wow, tha-anks," the girl interjected sarcastically, "That really helps boost my self-esteem. It's all the way up there with, like, glass plates."

Caterwaul scowled, "I'm trying to keep you alive, girl."

"I have a name, you know!"

"What is it?"

...

**Mwa ha ha ha, now you have to wait for the next chapter for her name! Hey by the way, sorry the username's ain't underlined, the fanfiction thing just refuses to let me! Have at thee, editing screen!**

**Oh, AAAAND... The world didn't end on 12/21/12! HA!**


	10. Chapter 10

**HI! Thank you everyone who reviewed, these are so many awesome and funny and super-nice reviews all for one chapter! This here chapter should hopefully have a bit o' funniness for ya' to enjoy. Hopes ya like it as much as I like all yer wonderful reviews!**

**To ****Mayday200****: Thank you so much! Aw, that's ok; yer reviews are always so nice! Quality rather than quantity... but quantity's always a good thing too, when it comes to quality reviews. Yeh, life makes people busy. Yahoo, I'm so glad!**

**To ****smoshaholic123****: Heh heh, yup. T's a pretty neat day o' the year.**

**To ****Iceshadow911247****: Yay! Ehhh... is he the one with floppy brown hair or spikier darker hair? I always forget, lemme check...** (**Sorry, I'm always forgetting who the actors are for everything I watch.) Oh, yes, Spiky Hair Doctor! Yeah, he's my favorite too. Hmm, no I don't think it'd be a good ending, 'cause then all the insanity that I have planned wouldn't happen! Hee hee, yeah, she's naturally good at being miffed at other persons. Ah, you SHALL know her name- t'is the first word of the beginning of** **this actual chapter (not this author's note.). Nope, it didn't end. Really? Here, take our Nerf guns, baseball bats, and my yet-to-be-completed bow that has no string or arrows yet! Or my dad, he'll annoy the zombies to death. Re-death. Whatever it is.**

**To ****zrexheartz****: Yyyyeah, sorry! I have the annoying habit of trying to fit main events on chapters that are multiples of 5 or 10! I'm quite insane in this way, and I miff myself greatly. Heh, sorry again! Are you a dude, or dudette too? I guess a dude.**

**To ****Abyss Prime****: Nope, it ain't ending any time soon! Oh, thank you so very much! I'll try; I've been looking forward to typing this chapter's hopeful hilarity for a while.**

**And finally, THE CHAPTER!**

"Shard." The girl stated.

"Shard?" Caterwaul inquired.

"Shard," the girl repeated.

"Why Shard?" Caterwaul asked.

"Because," Shard answered.

"Ah," Caterwaul replied knowingly. (**Why knowingly? 'Cause it makes it funnier. Least I hope it does.**)

"Sooo..." Shard asked, nodding a bit, "What will I eat while I'm kept prisoner here?" She would've added 'on this ship of doom,' but didn't want to offend anyone at this moment.

"Why?" Caterwaul inquired, "Are you hungry?"

"Nope," Shard answered, "But I will get hungry. Mucho de hungry."

Caterwaul looked around, "Ummm... We don't really _have_ any human food here..."

Shard nodded calmly, "Then I will die."

Caterwaul blinked at her blankly, "You don't seem worried by that."

"That's because I'm insane."

"You've been diagnosed with a severe mental condition?" Caterwaul questioned, cocking her head.

"No."

"Then why are you insane?"

"Because I am," Shard told her.

"This conversation is going in circles."

"I like circles."

Caterwaul sighed, "You are a very strange little human."

"Yep."

Caterwaul sighed more heavily, shaking her head and rolling her eyes. Robotic eyes.

"Can I ask you something?" Shard asked, to which Caterwaul replied, rather blandly, "You just did."

Shard made a deadpan expression, before shrugging and asking, "What are you? All of you, I mean. What're your eyes, words, everything?" She gestured to Knockout and Soundwave, who'd remained in the room observing the bizarre conversation.

"We are Decepticons," Knockout informed her haughtily and completely uninformatively. Shard blinked, uncomprehending.

"We're sentient robotic beings from the planet Cybertron," Caterwaul explained, "Females are femmes, males are mechs, our 'eyes' are optics, 'hearts' are sparks, and 'ears' are audio-receptors. Or just ears in my case." The feline grinned, twitching her furry ears a bit.

"We can transform into anything of the relative same mass as ourselves," she continued, "and we consume energon- which is refined from blue energon crystals of pure energy- as fuel. There are two main factions of Cybertronians: We, here, have the title of Decepticons. And our... enemies, the Autobots, are the same."

"Then why are you enemies?" Shard questioned, frowning as she remembered how many humans thought of other humans as enemies. Same species, same origin, same planet, but still killing one another. Why?

Caterwaul's eyes gleamed at the unspoken thoughts, clearly written on the girl's now innocent-looking-yet-sorrowful face, 'Why fight? Why kill one another? What's the point?'

Caterwaul's expression softened for a moment, before she smirked and turned to grin evilly at Knockout, "I believe you should be asking your guardian all these questions instead of me, Shard. I'm sure he'd _love_ to try explaining...!"

Knockout looked visibly ill at this statement, and at the smug grin that Caterwaul sent his way. Shard looked up at him, expression juuusst hinting at a smug, fake impatience, "Wellll...?"

Her faint smile spoke volumes for what she was silently implying, 'You can't think of a reason, can you? _I win_.'

Knockout frowned at her, a scowl appearing on his face as the girl cocked her head all too innocently, still expecting an answer. The scarlet Decepticon looked back to Soundwave for help, but the quiet indigo Decepticon had silently vanished.

Knockout groaned in frustration, rolling his optics, raising his arms and baring his claws in an aggrieved 'why me' gesture. Shard let a smirk flicker at the corner of her mouth, then cocked her head and froze as she heard someone speaking.

Deep growling raspy voice... Megatron. Ordering-ish tone... Sneering and aggressive... Now contemptuous and... dismissive. Then a quick, nasty laugh about something.

No more speaking, but loud, clanking footsteps, going away. Nah, more like foot-_clomps_. CLOMP! CLOMP! CLOMP. CLOMP. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp... Clomp...

'Yeeeeeesss,' Shard thought, mentally leering at the colossal dictator, 'Away with you! You're mean to the others. You yell like my mom. Nasty you.' The girl smirked at how silly the wording of her thoughts sounded, even to herself.

"Um, Shard?"

The girl felt something poke her shoulder, and she snapped her attention back to reality see Caterwaul, looking at her and holding one paw cautiously extended toward Shard's shoulder.

"What? Staring into space?" Shard inquired, "I do that sometimes." Just as she finished speaking, Shard glimpsed Soundwave coming back into the room. Again, silent.

"Hi," she greeted him simply, and the Decepticon turned his head to face in Shard's direction. The girl twitched in surprise when, as earlier, Megatron's harsh voice came out of the quiet Decepticon.

"Obviously, Knockout does not plan on doing anything _useful _with the little _pest_ he's brought here. Find out what you can from it; perhaps you will find something, some information that does not make it _entirely_ worthless. Go now."

Shard scowled at the floor, then growled a sigh, "Whaddaya wanna know?"

Her own voice, or at least a recording of it, answered Shard, "What are you? All of you, I mean. What're your eyes, words, everything?"

"Uhhhhh-huh," Shard stated slowly, "That's gonna be a lot."

Megatron's voice was replayed again, "If it disobeys, have Caterwaul help. She knows how to cause humans pain, I believe." So _that's_ what the nasty laughing part had been earlier.

Caterwaul pouted, "My claws are tired." Soundwave repeated Megatron's statement.

Caterwaul scrunched up her face, "Rrrh. Humans taste bad."

"Been wondering about that," Shard interjected, "And how would you know? Have you eaten humans before?"

(**WARNING! If ya don't like anything remotely gory, skip the next two paragraphs! Skippity skip 'em!**)

Caterwaul looked both surprised and disgusted, "Of course not! I bit- well, tore and shredded- a human's leg, and it tasted revolting. Dirt-coated fabric, stringy muscle tissue, utterly foul skin, disgustingly bitter meat-juice, and really sour blood, which kept squirting out onto my face and paws. All in all, a very bad taste."

Instead of looking appalled, Shard looked thoughtful, nodding her head and looking up slightly, "Try using salt or barbeque sauce to hide the flavor... But only after draining out all the blood with a deep cut through the major arteries... Preferably the throat, a quick death with less pain... Wash the meat out with water... _Then_ add the salt or barbeque sauce... Annnnd, yeah, that should be good to go. Oh wait, cooking it on a fire afterwards would be a good idea too."

Shard nodded to herself, pleased, and noticed that Caterwaul was staring at her.

"What?" the girl asked, "It works great on rats. And unused dead fish from fancy restaurants. Well, only one restaurant; the town's smallish, only has one or two vaguely fancy restaurants. And the cats don't like barbeque sauce. Salt is ok though. They like it if it's fire-cooked a bit, too, nice and warm."

Caterwaul didn't respond, except to blink.

"What?" Shard asked curiously.

"You... are a strange little human."

"Just hungry and observant."

"Correction, you are a strange, _scary_ little human."

"Yep."


	11. Chapter 11

**YO! I just watched one of the trailers for the third "Transformers Prime" season, where the giant animal-thing stalks out of the blue groundbridge with ol' Shocky, and I **_**loved**_** Screamer's reaction; his optics were HUGE! Now, back to this FanFiction...**

**To ****Iceshadow911247****: Yaaaayy. Ah, I'd run away too; I don't like that series at all, and shan't read it. Eh, best name I could think of that didn't sound like a normal name. Pfffft, hahaha, yeah, but I still like his character; he's so cool! Heh heh, glad ya like her. No no, just meat in general; but sure, if you're gonna eat a human, ya might as well do it right.**

**To ****Miss MayD2****: I see you've changed your username from ****MayDay200****... Yay! I'm so glad that it's funny! Hahaha, yes, I can see that you are VERY insane! Very good idea, but ain't Knockout's incapacity as a human's caretaker one of the things that'll make their interactions be funny? A least I hope so. No, he doesn't know much about us humans, too interested in racing and his shiny finish, and being awesome of course! Thank you, I will!**

**To ****Abyss Prime****: Yay, I'm glad you like it! Ok, I'll try!**

**To ****zrexheartz****: Woohoo, I'm glad ya liked it! Ah, ok, and sorry anyway. I'm grateful that there's no harm done, thank you!**

**To ****smoshaholic123****: Yay!**

**To ****lydiathetigeropean****: Ok, I will. Thank you very much for reviewing!**

**And now, the chapter!**

"Sooo..." Shard mused aloud, "...Now what?"

"Find out what you can from it," Megatron's harsh voice replayed from the dark, quiet Decepticon, "perhaps you will find something, some information that does not make it _entirely_ worthless."

"And yet another blow to my self-esteem," the girl declared dramatically, clutching her chest and lolling her head to the side theatrically.

She was sitting on a countertop-like ledge in a big room with Soundwave. She assumed that it was his room. It certainly fit what she'd seen of his personality; quiet, discreet, dark, elegant.

Soundwave didn't reply. Shard pouted slightly at the lack of reaction, then shrugged and sighed, "Ok. So, anything specific you wanna know?"

Megatron's order was again repeated, much to Shard's irritation. 'He orders his underlings around like my mom does with _us_,' she thought with a frown.

But hey, at least she could have some fun with telling Soundwave whatever little tidbits of information she decided on! Now. What type of stuff to tell him about...

Abruptly, the topic of diseases popped into her mind. Nah, too depressing, and she didn't know that much about any. Sure, she'd entertained the idea of being a veterinarian when she was little, but she was too lazy to read up about all that she'd have to know. She could patch up a wound or soothe a cat or dog in pain sometimes, but that was it.

And besides, Megatwit had specifically demanded information on _humans_.

"Humans can do a bunch of stuff," Shard began abruptly, "Um, we can do hard and effort-ful stuff like carrying heavy things, running, swimming, climbing trees..."

Was effort-ful a word? Shard didn't really care, and she continued speaking, sitting and laying in random positions.

"...And we can do more delicate stuff like writing and sculpting little details, uh, drawing, writing... Umm... we don't have natural armor like you guys, so we bleed kinda easy. We have hard bones inside, big ones like the femur..."

She pointed to her upper leg as she lay on her back and waved her legs in the air, "And tiny ones like in our hands." Shard pointed to one of her hands. "Ehhh... humans can look really different: lotsa eye colors, hair color, skin tone, height... Ehh I dunno what else to talk about."

Soundwave didn't reply, just kept watching her.

Shard sighed heavily and attempted to think of more things as she sat cross-legged and leaning forward, "Most of us- at least the ones I deal with- are rather crazy. And I use that word with all of it's varied meanings!"

She tried to list some of these as she attempted to walk her feet up the wall while laying on her back, "Foolish-crazy, no common sense crazy, just randomly-silly-crazy... genuinely insane like talking to walls crazy... old-people-crazy, there's alot of that... certifiable-lunatics-in-an-insane-asylem-crazy...brain-damaged-teenagers-crazy because most kids are brain-damaged according to Bill Cosby and I agree... We're a very crazy species."

"School is evil," she stated randomly, laying on her stomach with her feet flicking and head resting on her hands, "Tons of homework, tests, quizzes, grades, lots of people all over the place. Like a prison, but suppossedly educational and for young people who haven't committed serious felonies. At least none that I know of."

"Uhhhhh... adults go to jobs, where they work hard- or not- and get given green rectangles of paper and round flat coins as money, currency," she continued, sitting up again, "Uhh, we spend it on food, clothes, entertainment, explaining all this useless information is so boring but I can't think of anything else at the moment..." Shard groaned as she trailed off.

The girl flopped backwards on the ledge, laying on her back with her arms splayed out behind her on the countertop's surface. She noticed that she was actually surprisingly tired.

"Can I take a break?" she inquired, "I've had a long day. Maybe if I rest, I can think of better more interesting stuff to talk of. Oh yeah, humans supposedly need at least 8 hours of sleep every night. See? I'm already thinking of more stuff!"

After a considering pause, Soundwave nodded. "Thanks," Shard told him, "Uh, where should I go?"

The quiet Decepticon's blank visor lit up with a picture of Knockout, and the girl sighed in resignation. "Ok," she agreed, "Where is he?"

What looked like a map appeared on Soundwave's visor, and two blinking dots on it. He pointed to one, and then to Shard. Then the other, and brought back the picture of Knockout.

"Ermhh," Shard mumbled, "I don't know my way around this place. I have no idea what, or where, those map-places are. Sorry." Her confident and bored attitude had rapidly changed to a timid and meek demeanor as she apologized for the inconvenience.

Soundwave walked away from where he'd been standing next to the girl's ledge and walked to the doorway, turning to look back at Shard. The girl quickly scrambled up and jumped off of the ledge, landing on the floor with a quiet grunt of effort; it was a much higher jump than she was used to.

She ran after Soundwave, ignoring the discomfort as she put weight on her right foot, (which was still sore from when she'd stepped on a piece of sharp stone when she'd been running from Caterwaul in one of the abandoned apartments).

After a minute or two of walking, Shard and her guide arrived at the entrance to a large room: a huge, dark doorway that made Shard feel very small as she walked through.

"Thanks, Soundwave," Shard called as the dark Decepticon left, leaving the girl alone with her kidnapper/ guard. Yippee.

Shard noted that the crimson Decepticon was fiddling with something on a large table, and wondered what it was. Was this his room? It was way bigger- and much more full of stuff- than Soundwave's room.

She wasn't sure what all the strange alien devices where supposed to be, or be for. And Knockout didn't seem to be inclined to acknowledge her presence. So, Shard sat by a wall, entertaining herself by guessing what different gadget-y things might do.

This merely ended up frustrating her, since most of the devices were too confusing or complicated-looking or just plain weird to guess.

Thankfully, within just a couple minutes, Caterwaul arrived, breaking the lonely boredom. Shard perked up at the presence of another female, since hanging around a bunch of dudes isn't very much fun, especially if one doesn't know them and they ignore one. 'One,' being Shard.

"Hey, Shard," Caterwaul greeted, and the girl waved, then asked, "What're all these device-thingies in here for?"

"It is my medical equipment," Knockout answered, much to the girl's surprise. She'd thought that he didn't want to speak with her.

"Yours?" Shard inquired, "You're a doctor?" She'd thought that some of the gadget-things were torture devices...

"I am a medic," the crimson Decepticon clarified, "and this is my med-bay. Though I much prefer breaking things to fixing them." Shard nodded; she could believe it. He seemed more salesman/attacking-ninja-y than doctor-healer-y.

"Oh, Caterwaul," Knockout called, "I need another shelf. My energon-prod starts bending if it's leaned against a wall for too long."

Caterwaul sighed, "Fine. Where's the scrap metal?" "I don't currently have any," Knockout replied, then added with a cruel smirk, "At least, none that you'd be willing to use."

Caterwaul bristled, optics flashing angrily as she let out a small snarl. This entire exchange greatly confused Shard, who had no idea what they were talking about. She stayed quiet though, willing to observe and listen.

"If you're going to irritate me," Caterwaul stated firmly, a growl in her voice, "then you won't be getting any help from me, and I shall _greatly_ look forward to a battle-practice session with you. My claws could do with a new scratching post."

Knockout cringed, "Alright, alright Caterwaul. There are plenty of unused metal pieces in the storage room." Caterwaul gave a curt nod, and left.

She came back, muttering something about a bug and dragging a pile of metal scraps with her tail, on a flat, sled-like sheet of metal. The feline set the stuff down and turned to Knockout, less aggressively this time.

"How big do you want this shelf?" Caterwaul questioned, and Knockout considered for a moment, before specifying the size in some unit of measurement that Shard assumed was in Cybertronian. It made sense that they'd have different units of measurement than humans.

"Alright," Caterwaul agreed, and then did something that seemed completely absurd to Shard. The feline stuck her head into the pile of metal, and... started _eating_ it!

The dumbfounded girl watched in amazement as Caterwaul grew several inches, right before her eyes!

"Wow," Shard stated, "Do you just keep eating metal until you... explode or something?"

"Ehh..._Noo._ ...No, I don't," Caterwaul answered, blining in concern. Then, ignored Shard's bizarre inquiry and asked the red medic where he'd prefer having his new shelf. Knockout indicated a blank spot on the wall near one corner of the room, and Caterwaul walked toward it, motioning for Shard to join her.

The girl trotted over, and held up the thin sheet of metal to the wall when Caterwaul asked her to. Then, to Shard's astonishment, the feline retched up the metal she'd eaten, and vomited it on the side of the sheet of metal nearest the wall.

In roughly a minute, the metallic glop hardened and dried like cement, welding the sheet of metal to the wall. Caterwaul added more metal goop, waited until it hardened, and then gave a nod of satisfaction and left.

"What'd you mean, 'none she'd be willing to use'?" Shard inquired of Knockout, who shrugged one shoulder, "The closest large amount of scrap metal to the med-bay is from several drones."

"'From'?" Shard inquired, cocking her head. "Yes," Knockout answered, placing a pointy-looking rod-like device on the newly-made shelf, "They didn't survive their injuries from our last few battles with the Autobots, so they are currently in the morgue, ready to be made into spare parts."

Shard's expression was one of horror and disgust as she took in his words. No wonder Caterwaul had been angry at him.

"Where... is the m... morgue?" she asked, almost choking out the words. "Next room over," Knockout replied, carelessly pointing out which direction. Shard nodded her thanks, and stalked quietly toward the indicated room.

She came back to the med-bay several minutes later, stone-faced and clenching her fists.

Shard glared around the med-bay, evaluating once again the numerous medical devices. They seemed to have been used _less_ often than the morgue, which more resembled a _supply room_, one for mutilated scraps of once-identical robotic carcasses, now waiting to be recycled.

Shard refused to let that continue.

**Yikes. This chapter-ending was WAY more depressing than I'd originally written. I promise that the next chapter will be funnier and more cheerful!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hiiiii... *hisses* I have had WAYYYY to much homeworrrrkkkk... And now most of my speaking sounds like hissing and/ or growling. CURSE HOMEWORK TO THE ENDS OF THE UNIVERSSSSSSE! I haven't updated anything in around a WEEK because of getting tons of review homework! *pets laptop* My preciousss...**

**To ****lydiathetigeropean****: They can be cruel, yes. Being ordered around by Megatron and constantly getting shot at by Autobots can do that.**

**To ****zrexheartz****: Yep, she is. Still not exactly comfortable with being trapped on a giant ship with her kidnappers, but yeah. Having a mission is a good distraction or motivation; if all people had missions, maybe they'd all be perkier... Thanks, I'm glad that ya like it!**

**To ****Iceshadow911247****: Haha, I have an obsession with Transformers, drawing cats, and getting just the right color to draw/ paint blood. Really? Cool! So you could be a good doctor! Ah, yeah, I added in that part to make the chapter longer or something. Knockout mentioned that 'cause he knows that it's against Caterwaul's morals to eat/ use pieces of dead Cybertronians. Live ones are fine, though, especially if Caterwaul's mad at them. Yeah, I'm not entirely pleased with the ending; I think I made it too depressing and abrupt.**

**To ****Abyss Prime****: Don't worry, it will be funnier. Ah yes, school, that prison of torture for young people. I hope you soon may escape from it's clutches of school-y evilness.**

**Now, I can finally type up this chapter, and you people can finally read it. ****I don't own Transformers, vla blab la. Bla bla bla.**

"I can't believe Megatron ordered me to bring you along, human," Knockout complained with a scowl, carrying Shard in one hand, his fingers curled around the girl's waist and stomach as he strolled down a rocky path within an enormous energon mine.

"I can't believe you use dead Vehicons for spare parts," Shard retorted, glaring at him from her semi-comfortable position in his hand.

"You still haven't let that go, have you?" the red Cybertronian drawled, sounding uninterested. Shard hissed at him.

She'd always been a sympathizer for underdogs, and she found it unfair that the Vehicons were so... were _considered_ so _disposable_. She'd been with the Decepticon's for about a day now, and was still firmly fixated on the subject.

Knockout however, seemed to be more focused on wondering where someon named 'Airachnid' had gone. Until Knockout and Shard arrived at a tier of the mine that had a battle going on. Shard winced at the crumpled and dismembered shape of a dead Vehicon nearby.

A white-and-red Cybertronian with green optics was attacking Breakdown, and Caterwaul was screeching and hissing in fury. She arched her spine slightly and fluffed out her fur, darting in to rip at the unfamiliar Cybertronian's legs and arms every couple seconds, attempting distract him.

"The Autobot medic?" Knockout scoffed, observing the battle, "He never fights!" And yet at this moment, the Autobot was most certainly fighting. And _beating_ the other Decepticons!

Knockout looked both confused and worried by this, then made a hasty retreat before the kamikaze Autobot could see -and attack- _him_.

Minutes later, Shard really wished that she wasn't still in Knockout's hand. Megatron was questioning him -rather aggressively and threateningly, - and the scarlet Decepticon was tightening his grip on Shard almost every time Megatron snarled at him. Which was a lot. It was also partially-funny and partially-just-plain-weird when the red 'Con put up both hands to shield himself from his violent leader, Shard still clutched in one of said-hands.

The girl remained stuck there even as Breakdown collapsed on the ground in front of them, followed by the disturbingly enthusiastic Autobot and the enraged Caterwaul, who bit off a piece of the Autobot's armor and then spat it at him, before jumping away to help revive her injured friend.

Shard covered her smirk when the Autobot punched Megatron in the face, then winced when Megatron threw him to the floor, green ooze pooling out onto the ground. This was perplexing, since she'd been told that Cybertronian blood was energon- blue energon.

The girl writhed in Knockout's grip when he stalked forward to cut open the 'Bot, and was relieved when said-'Bot kicked Knockout (and her) into a wall. It hurt when she slipped out of the Decepticon's hand and onto the rocky ground, but she was glad that the Autobot was alive.

Thankfully, the crazy Autobot's reinforcements arrived in time to help him, and Knockout and Shard managed to escape. Though they had to return to examine the green goo, which had apparently been what made the 'Bot go crazy and weirdly powerful. Shard blinked at this news, "Sooo... it's like steroids?"

The 'Bot had also taunted Knockout about the blood-words on his windshield. Shard then had to scrape the blood off later. Though she threatened to coat Knockout's whole interior with it when he decided to find out how to make more of the green ooze.

"What if it makes you or someone else go bomkers like that Autobot?!" Shard scolded/ exclaimed indignantly. And with that, she kicked dirt and rock onto the dried green puddle. One of her big toes touched a bit that was still wet, and she yelped when it burned slightly, then hurriedly scraped it off with her long, jagged nails.

She had to sleep on a shelf/ledge in Caterwaul's room as punishment for her 'insolence,' but really she didn't mind. The girl pretended to be asleep when she heard Breakdown enter, and she listened carefully to the conversation that ensued between him and Caterwaul.

"You sure you're ok, 'Crash?" "Yeah, I'm fine." "Liar, you can barely lift you arm." "..." "Hey, you know I'm just worried about you." "I know, I know. You seemed pretty mad at that 'Bot." "Well of course! He was hurting you for no reason!" "Would you have been just as mad if that'd happened to one of the others?" Breakdown sounded just faintly smug.

"...No." This was said in a rather shy voice from Caterwaul, "But, um, I was mad that he was attacking at all. Autobots just don't do that for no reason." "Why do you keep _defending_ them?" "Because, as I've said before, Autobots are mostly good, and there's no reason for always fighting." "Ha!" "It's true! Even you and Bulkhead are more like competitive rivals than enemies!" "..."

At this point, Shard couldn't lay still any longer, and she sat up, pretending to have just woken up, and asked Caterwaul if she could go to the bathroom, thus shattering the moment.

Since the ship didn't have a convenient little room for humans, Caterwaul had- at Shard's embarrassed request that first day- formed a large bowl-like cavity in a corner for the girl to use. Thank goodness she'd had some tissues with her in her pocket when she'd been kidnapped.

The next day, Megatron and most of the others went to look for more energon, while Knockout stayed aboard the ship with Shard. The others' search would be closer than usual to human habitations in the desert, and neither Megatwit nor Knockout trusted the girl to not make a run for it.

So, Shard was stuck in the medbay with Knockout, extremely bored with nothing to do. She'd tried asking him what some of his medical equipment did, but he hadn't told her, suspecting that she'd either One: have no idea what he was saying and it'd therefore be a waste of time, or Two: she might attempt to use one of the devices and ruin something.

So, Shard was bored, and thusly in a rather bad mood. The fact that she'd had nothing to eat or drink for about two days didn't help much either.

So, Shard walked over to where Knockout was working on some random device, and kicked his leg. This, Shard had miffedly decided, was the best way to get his attention without allowing him to make the excuse that he hadn't noticed her.

(Since she was feeling merciful though, she made sure that none of her pointy toenails scratched his paintjob, which was admittedly very good.)

"What is it now, human?" the red medic questioned, turning his head to glance at her.

"I'm thirsty," Shard stated, "Very much so. Could you please do something to get me some water?" "No," her guard replied, "I'm currently busy."

Shard's irritation turned into a deadpan expression, "Well then in a couple days you'll be _busy_ finding some way to dispose of a rotting human carcass and lots of flies, because if I don't get water soon, I'll die!"

"No you won't," Knockout waved the idea away carelessly, "Now be quiet." "No!" Shard snapped, losing her temper. "Human," Knockout growled, "I _want_ you to be _quiet_."

"We all _want_ things," Shard quipped. (**Quoting from an 'iCarly' episode, which I don't own.**) "But we can both get what we want if you get me some water," she added hopefully.

"No!" Knockout snapped, "Now be quiet." "Or else what?" Shard scoffed confidently, though her eyes darted around to the various hiding places around the medbay.

"Or..." Knockout muttered distractedly, losing interest, "Or else you'll be... doomed."

A disturbingly and startlingly evil grin slithered up Shard's face, "Doomed?" "Erm... yes," Knockout replied, growing disturbed by Shard's smirking expression.

"Doom-doom, doomdoomdoom, _doom_, doom doomdoom!" the girl suddenly started singing in a high pitched voice, "_Doom_ doomydoomydoom, doom doom-doom!" (**This is from the first episode of 'Invader Zim,' which I own-eth not. If I did, Tak would be in way more episodes.**)

Though he tried to ignore it, and the fact that 'doom' no longer sounded like a word, Knockout couldn't stand it for more than a few minutes, and began chasing the girl through the medbay trying to make her stop.

This simply encouraged her to keep going, and she did so quite enthusiastically from many different hiding spots among the medical equipment. Whenever her voice got tired, she'd take a quick break, slither away to a new hiding spot, and start up all over again.

"Arrrrhhgkh!" Knockout shouted when he got the song stuck in his processor, "Stop it! I'll order a Vehicon to get you some water, alright?!"

"Yes, quite alright, thank you," Shard replied civilly, leaning out to poke the back of his head from where she was crouched on a shelf of supplies.

She grinned when she later heard him accidentally humming the song later and then moaning. Maybe later she'd sing something else to get the song out f his processor for him.

**So, better chapter? A bit more funny, I hope? Gaaaaah, it's all School's fault that I haven't updated for so long! Wouldn't it be cool if all the homework that everyone in the world had to do just randomly spontaneously combusted? *grins wistfully* **


	13. Chapter 13

**Halloooo! I'm starting typing up this right now while it's still dark out and I just got up early. Since school is rather spastic and unpredictable with when it shoves a trillion homework assignments in my face, I don't know how much time during the day I'll have to type my chapters. SO, I'm typing it now, at... about 6:00 in the morning.**

**To ****AutobotSoShi****: I notice you've changed yer username from smoshaholic123; neat new name. Thanks, I try to include lots of funny insanity with her. Hahaha, yes! Yes, it is! "school is evil condensed into about eight hours of academic irritation." That should be one of those funny quotes that people see in person's profiles! Seriously, that's as good as Adam on Mythbusters, "Am I missing an eyebrow?"**

**To ****lydiathetigeropean****: Cooooolll... A bazooka! YES! Hahaha, I like explode-y things. Oddly enough, I'd thought- from your first two reviews- that you sounded like a timid person. Ha, I was quite wrong indeed!**

**To ****Iceshadow911247****: Wow, cool. What kinds of torture? Fatal? Mental? Pointy? I like pointy things and they're shiny! Pfft, hahaha! I wonder **_**why**_** doctors are famous for bad handwriting. Eh, possibly. It isn't a super-well-known cartoon show; but it's bizarre, hilarious, sometimes really disturbing (just because of how dumb most of the humans are), and fantastically insane! Try looking it up on Wiki. Hahaha, yeah, good point; exploding homework IS fun, but not in a person's hands.**

**To ****Abyss Prime****: Ha ha, yay! I'm so happy that my chapter's funny! It can be a bit hard to put in enough hilarity while still trying to make the chapter make sense. Thanks, and I **_**will**_** try to update soon!**

**To ****zrexheartz****: Yeah. Wait, which person deserved what though? Ratchet deserved getting bit by Caterwaul, or Knockout deserved being semi-tortured with Shard singing "The Doom Song"?**

**Ok, now for the chapter! ...And now I hafta go eat breakfast and get ready for school, so the next words you see will have been typed several hours after this author's note was typed.**

**Halloo again! Now it's afternoon! And my sis has gotten me interested in TMNT 2012. Heh heh heh, the burly-red-haired-evil-guy/brownish-dog-thing has the same voice as that accursed M.E.C.H. human from TFPrime! I laughed when he said "we have failed." Heh heh heh. And now, officially, the chapter!**

Eventually, after what felt like hours for Shard, the rest of the 'Cons returned to the ship. Shard, who had been laying floppily in an empty corner, sat bolt upright at the sound of the whooshing portal, which she'd learned was called a 'groundbridge.'

The girl had been given some water in a large bucket by a Vehicon, who she thanked. She also noticed a metal tang in the water (not surprising, since the ship and most occupants were metal-based). There was also an odd tomato-y taste in the water though... What was with that?

Shard absently flicked her tongue over her teeth, pleased with their pointiness. Cats and other marvelous animals defended themselves with pointy teeth and claws; it seemed a good technique from Shard's point of view.

So she was well-pleased by her pointed nails and relatively pointy teeth, though they still tasted vaguely tomato-y...

Shard scrutinized the closed door of the medbay, then turned to look at Knockout hopefully. 'Lemme out?' her expression pleaded expectantly.

Knockout moved away almost imperceptibly from the girl, and refused her unspoken request for opening the door- a simple task that was easy for large Cybertronians, but not for a small human.

"No," the scarlet Decepticon told Shard, "You'll stay here until the others are finished in the control room. I don't want you getting underfoot and Megatron putting the blame on _me_ for it." Shard made a wry face as her brain visualized a literal translation of 'underfoot.'

A very gooey and crunchy translation indeed. 'No,' she corrected herself, 'Crunchy and _then_ gooey. My bones would make crunchy noises a little before my innards come out gooey.' The girl nodded to herself and, when asked about it by the medic, told him.

"Mm-hmmm..." he responded, looking more mildly intrigued by human structure than disgusted at Shard's casual, mental rendition of it's delicate-ness.

Shard smiled as his reaction gave her another reason to not mind being trapped with strange, alien robots. They didn't think of her bizarre ideas as weird or unusual for a human, since they didn't know much about humans, most of whom would've been repulsed by Shard's unbothered imaginings of such bloody or demented things.

Though Shard _did_ remember how fun it was to freak people out by mentioning such things. A casual yet thoughtful mention of "what if such-and-such a deadly and bloody thing happened to a human?" or "I think the best/worst way to die would be..." or even "I wonder if that's infected...?" could result in some amusing facial expressions from both annoying classmates _and_ bossy adults!

A minute or so later, Knockout decided it was ok for the girl to leave, and opened the door. Though Shard had darted over as fast as she could, she still couldn't see what it was that he did to open it. Was it a motion detector? Was it a pressure sensor on the floor? Or did you have to press a button near it?

(**I've just skimmed through a couple episodes trying to find out how the doors on the ship open. DOORS! Such frustrating things they are, these **_**doors**_**...**)

"Thanks, Knockout!" Shard called as she trotted out. He waved her away with one hand in a shoo-ing gesture, and an almost-teasing dismissal, "Yes, yes, now begone with you."

Shard pouted slightly then grinned and whispered, "Doooomm." Knockout visibly flinched, and closed the door immediately. The girl chuckled quietly to herself, the jogged away.

She could hear odd sounds coming from several directions, mostly irritated growling mutterings, and contemplated which one she should investigate first. The girl shrugged and walked towards the closest-sounding noise. Before she could reach it however, Shard was met by Caterwaul, who was coming down a different corridor.

The mechanical feline was limping slightly and looked highly uncomfortable, and parts of her clouded-leopard-mode fur were visible or halfway sticking out from her side, causing the odd effect of looking as if she had some bizarre form of mange.

"What happened to _you_?" Shard asked, looking her up and down, "Was there a fight?" Caterwaul shook her head, but it didn't turn all the way to the right, and her neck made a 'click' noise when she moved it.

"Not a fight," Caterwaul scoffed, "A store. Megatron decided to look around some empty human store- empty of humans at least- and he fell on one side of the building." Caterwaul smirked as she recalled how funny it'd been to watch. Shard grinned too, wondering if this could be used as blackmail against the bossy gray leader.

Caterwaul continued, "He happened to fall on an entire row of shelf-structures full of these clinging little things"- Caterwaul indicated a small, pebble-like object stuck inside one of the joints inside one of her paws- "and when we all came to look, the things got stuck on us too."

Caterwaul stiffly moved her tail-blade to her side and twisted it to remove another gray pebble-like object, which then clung to her tail-blade, even when she tried to shake it off.

Shard blinked, then reached over, and pried the object off of Caterwaul's tail, dropping it easily to the floor.

The feline blinked in astonishment as the girl announced the name of the Decepticons' ailment: Magnets.

**Hiii! I took a day off of updating this, so now I'm back! I know it might seem stupid that the 'Cons don't recognize that the little things are magnets, but they mostly don't know (or care to know) much about Earth and humans. Plus their planet is **_**metal**_**, so there, magnets would be... I dunno really, but not used very much I guess. They'd maybe have electromagnetic equipment stuff, yeah, but not natural magnets hangin' around all over the place. And I think that since the 'Cons are made out of Cybertronian metal, magnets would stick to them more firmly than to regular metal. At least that's me best guess fer this here magnet-y subject. I hope this explanation has helped!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Hallooo! Here I be once again.**

**To Iceshadow911247: Ooh, lots of torture devices! Heh heh, maybe we could send in a myth about exploding homework to 'MythBusters'… Haha, yep, they still haven't recovered from The Skunk Incident! Yep, she does, their reactions can be so funny. Ooh, really? Nothing fatal please, I might feel sorry for de peoples of tortured-ness. I'm really glad you thought the chapter was funny!**

**To AutobotSoShi: Yep, magnets they be! Thanks! Shard appreciates your compliment very much!**

**To lydiathetigeropean: Oh, ok; I can be shy too, but also completely insane or scary right before or after. Thank you very much! Nope, they haven't given her any food. But she's used to not getting a lot to eat; she hides and gets food from gardens and dumpsters after all.**

**To Abyss Prime: Yes, magnets indeed. Hahaha, maybe someday they will! Well, then I should hurry and update!**

**To zrexheartz: Ah, ok, and yeah, that would be pretty bad to hear The Doom Song for too long. Ha ha, yes, them magnets be dangerous things!**

**Thank you everyone for your great reviews! And now on to the chapter!**

A low growling noise was heard in the control room of the ship, and then a low growling, "No." It was Megatron.

"Yes," Caterwaul told him patiently, sitting calmly on the floor next to Shard. She had gotten all of the magnets removed off of her by Shard, and looked faintly smug.

"No," Megatron repeated, more irritatedly than the first time, "I will not have this pathetic little human making this situation worse by-" "Helping remove the magnets?" Shard interrupted, frustrated, "I'm not making anything worse; I'm trying to help, you gigantic _toaster_!"

Focusing on locating all the magnets on the enormous gray Decepticon, the girl didn't notice his furious glare as she continued, "And I'd say that my volunteering to help should be appreciated, at least a little, not dismissed as, as, as some act of sabotage or whatever! What could I do to any of you anyway?!"

Actually, Shard was pretty sure she might be able to do some significant damage if she could tear out some wires from an arm or leg joint, but she didn't really want to. And she certainly wasn't going to mention it right now.

The girl was saved from trying to continue her indignant mini-rant when Soundwave walked in. Well, staggered in. Shard was amazed to actually hear his footsteps this time, and winced at how stiffly one whole side of him was bent.

There were magnets all along his arms and left leg, and on the edge of what looked like a mechanical tentacle sticking limply out of his left side.

"Megatron wasn't able to walk very well," Caterwaul whispered to Shard in explanation, "After he fell in all those magnets. So Breakdown and the Copy Con tried to help, and the magnets got all over them too."

The girl nodded mutely as she observed the Decepticon's obvious discomfort as he tried to tell Megatron something. Wait, 'Copy Con'?

"What's a Copy Con?" Shard whispered to Caterwaul, who snorted quietly, "My nickname for Soundwave, since he copies what he hears, instead of speaking." Shard was just nodding with a sort of "ahh, now I get it" smile, when she was interrupted.

"Care to relate what you are both _discussing_?" Megatron asked with an embedded snarl, his voice sarcastic and slightly hissing. It reminded Shard of how her mother used to snap at her and her sister.

Shard straightened up and clenched her teeth to keep her temper under control, "Nothing that we wished to bother you with, _sir_, since you were apparently busy." Shard wasn't able to stop her shoulder blades from shifting upwards aggressively, like a cat arching its back.

Caterwaul let out a gentle warning growl, and Shard forced herself to assume a less hostile stance, though her fists were clenched and her arms stiff.

"What. Were you. Dis_cus_sing?" Megatron growled, dragging out the question with an impatient snarl in his voice.

"Nuh-_thing_," Shard snapped with a twitch of her head for emphasis, glaring at the floor near Megatron's feet.

Soundwave replayed what Caterwaul and the girl had been saying, but the replayed voices sounded distorted and weird. Shard snorted at how funny it sounded (like loopy preschoolers with peanut butter in their mouths), and tried to hold back the grin that had suddenly replaced her scowl.

She thought she heard Megatron say something else, and looked up, most of her irritation gone, "Huh?" She made a politely apologetic face when Megatron's glare deepened, but she still didn't know what he'd said.

The girl wasn't even annoyed at him anymore; her brief amusement had balanced out her irritation, so now she was fine. Simple as that.

Soundwave repeated what Megatron had said, but the replay was, again, distorted.

This time, Shard had to cover her mouth with her hands to muffle her laughing; Megaron's replayed voice, asking what Shard thought was so amusing, sounded partially like he was drunk, and partially like a large cat hacking out a hairball (and Shard _knew_ what _that_ sounded like).

Furious with the girl's lack-of-terrified-respect-and-fear of himself, Megatron narrowed his optics and took a step toward her. Shard was now having great difficulty smothering her laughs, since she was now imagining Megatron as a cat hacking out a hairball. Or just hacking out a hairball _like_ a cat. Yeeessss, that was satisfyingly more bizarre and funny.

(**Yeah, that image just randomly popped into my head: Megatron leaning his head into some garbage-chute in the wall, retching and going "Hhii-ih, hhii-ih" like Puss in Boots from that 'Shrek' movie. Weird image.**)

Blissfully unaware of the wanderings of Shard's demented imagination, Megatron snarled and transformed his arm into a lethal-looking gun. ...A _would-be_ lethal-looking gun, if several magnets had not currently been attached to his arm, and then lodged in several of its gears and joints.

Now the destructive weapon/arm looked like an exploded metal hibiscus flower. Shard's cackling abruptly stopped as she looked up at the noise curiously, her expression ½ this-is-interesting-and-slightly-humorous, ½ almost you-look-stupid-but-I-won't-tell-you-so.

(**I've spent several minutes trying to think of how to describe the expression I'm thinking of. Sort of liiike... 0.0 but with a trace of a smile and with the eyes looking way up.**)

Frustrated even more, Megatron attempted to _force_ his arm into its weapon-form, but the strain on the joints only resulted in a large amount of scraping metal and pain, causing Megatron to let out a pained, yelp-like, growling hiss.

"Is something _dying_?" Knockout called from a nearby hallway, sounding both incredulous and disturbed. "Ye-es!" Shard called back cheerfully, and Caterwaul muffled a bit of snickering.

Deciding to ignore the annoying human and annoying-but-deadly Decepticat, Megatron gave up on his arm/gun, and questioned Soundwave as to how he, Breakdown, and the three Vehicons were faring with trying to remove the magnets.

A replay of Megatron's own yelp/screech noise answered him, though a bit louder and more drawn out.

Caterwaul's fur bristled at the noise, and Shard winced in sympathy. It sounded _actually painful_ coming from the quiet Decepticon- as opposed to _humorous_, coming from the ever-so-bossy Megatwit.

"Urrrghh," Megatron growled, "There must be _some_ way to rid ourselves of these things."

In reply, Soundwave pointed his non-magnet-covered arm at Shard, replaying the girl's voice, "Volunteering to help." Almost as an afterthought, he added, "What could I do to any of you-?" The words were still garbled and weird-sounding, but the message was clear.

"Mmmh," Megatron huffed after a brooding pause, "Very well."

**Yaaay, there's the chapter! I'm so very very sorry I haven't been updating a lot. Blame school. And homework.**


	15. Chapter 15

**HIII! I have less homework than usual today, so I can try to update now! WOOHOO! Now, let's see...**

**To ****Abyss Prime****: Heh heh, yup. Sorry if I disturbed you with the Megatron-hairball image; even **_**I**_** thought it was one of my weirder images.**

**To ****AutobotSoShi****: Hahaha, yay! I'm so very pleased that you thought that weird idea was funny.** **I got loads of random and bizarre ideas in this crazy old head of mine.**

**To ****Iceshadow911247****: Ah, ok, then sure! (I gots some ideas of my own; I think being strapped down in a small room full of recently-bathed ferrets would be a good torture, adorable but painful!) Ha ha, yeaaahh, sorry if that hairball-image will now forever haunt you. I personally start grinning whenever I think about it; I had no idea that so many people would comment on it! Yep, magnets are dangerous things!**

**To ****lydiathetigeropean****: Thank you! Hmm, that'd be interesting... The magnets **_**are**_** messing up Soundwave's ability to replay stuff, so they probably might/ will mess with Vehicon processors too. Ehmm, cowboys? I'm not sure if I'd be able to write that. A very interesting idea though!**

**To ****zrexreatz****: Wahoo! Thank you very much! I'm glad ya like it!**

**And now onto the chapterrrr! **

A low growling noise was once again heard aboard the ship. This time it came from the medbay, where Shard was picking magnets off of and out of Megatron's armor.

The gray-ish tyrant had apparently feared that his dignity might suffer if anyone were to see him getting assistance from a 'puny scrap of human filth,' so he had decided to kick Knockout out of the medbay and have Shard remove the magnets from him there.

The girl had been thoroughly angry at him for forcing Knockout to leave his own medbay, so she'd purposefully kicked Megatron's arm when she was climbing up it. He didn't even notice, but Shard felt smug all the same.

'I get to punish Megatwit for being rude and he doesn't even know, so I don't even get punished! Cool!'

She was still miffed at him, so she made sure that her toenails scraped his shoulder where she was perched, and her jagged fingernails nails scraped his armor as she removed the magnets. Yeah, the tiny little scratches had no effect whatsoever, but still, she felt smug.

Nodding in satisfaction that there were no more magnets on Megatron's arms, shoulders, head, ugly face, chest, or back, Shards shimmied down his left arm, crouched on a jutting-out-piece of armor, and jumped down.

For a split second, she glimpsed a magnet on the giant robot's leg that she'd missed. Then she landed heavily on the floor, crouching to absorb some of the impact that slammed up through her legs from her feet.

She wasn't used to jumps _this_ high, and her bare feet stung a little. But she'd been running around on hard-packed dirt and concrete and jumping down stairs for almost a year, so it wasn't too bad. (Her record at Jump-Down-The-Stairs-Without-Touching-The-Last-Ones was currently four, and it still made her feet ache.)

"Are you finished?" Megatron questioned, glancing down at her impatiently. "Not just yet," Shard replied absently, already leaning around the lower-leg armor to find the magnet.

She reached in her left arm between all the huge, pointy armor-plating, feeling around for the magnet that was somewhere around the inside of Megatron's ankle and staring up into space with her tongue out.

(She'd seen people do that looking-up-with-their-tongue-out-while-they-try-to-find-something on TV, and decided to try it. ...The ceiling wasn't very exciting to stare at, so she was a bit disappointed, and returned to staring at the leg-armor with her tongue out.)

"AhHA!" the girl announced, feeling her fingertips brush the circular little magnet. She leaned a bit lower, moving her face to one side so it wouldn't be impaled on one of Megatron's huge pointy-leg-armor spurs.

As Shard pulled the magnet out, a thin point of inner-armor, pointing inwards from the outer-armor, sliced along her outer arm. The girl gasped in surprise, then clenched her jaw and pulled her arm the rest of the way out.

Hmm. The thin metal point had scored a long, thin cut in her skin, from almost her elbow to the top of her wrist. Teeny little pinpricks of blood mixed with wound-fluid slowly appeared along the inside of the shallow-but-stinging wound.

The inside of a muchly-armored metal leg was not a good place for a girl to go magnet-hunting in. Said-girl mentally added this to her bizarre list of odd advice-things.

Thank goodness her arm had only been grazed; that could have gone a lot deeper. Shard smirked to herself as she walked around Megatron, checking for any more magnets. Really, the only wounds she ever got were shallow little nicks and cuts that barely broke the skin.

When she picked away at the scabs long enough though, they bled, and eventually became scars. A couple times, when had been back at her family's house, she'd scratched her leg or arm rapidly with her fingernails, because she felt bad for disappointing her parents. It hurt, but made her feel as if how she looked on the outside matched how she felt on the inside.

She wouldn't recommend it though. It could be rather tedious picking stray dust and stuff out of the scratches, and took a couple weeks for them to officially become scars. And then her parents and teachers worried about her and thought she was 'cutting' or something bad like that.

'Back to the matter at hand,' Shard thought as she broke off from her reminiscing.

"I think yer' magnets are all gone now!" she called up to Megatron, who nodded. "Good," he stated, in a tone that suggested that what he wanted to say was "Final_lyyy_!"

"You're welcome," Shard told him pertly, "May I have some food? Tooo... keep my strength up?" Her arm itched and she scratched at it while she awaited Megatron's answer.

"Very well," he finally responded, and Shard held back an ecstatic cheer, "I will send Knockout to collect some while you remove these magnets from the rest of my troops."

"Aye-aye, sir," Shard couldn't help saying, making a salute. Megatron looked at her funny, a bit confused. Shard wondered if it was a good thing or a bad thing that he didn't seem to know much about human-sayings.

She shrugged and smiled as she followed the enormous Decepticon out of the medbay. The girl thought it was slightly ironic that Megatron was going to ask Knockout a favor, right after he had kicked the medic out of his medbay. Ironic or rude, Shard was never really sure about that kind of thing.

The girl dismissed that boring topic from her mind as she picked at her nails. Some of them were blood-flecked and had little bits of skin in them from scratching at her most recent arm-injury. It _really itched_.

By the time Megatron had finished asking (demanding/ordering) Knockout to get food for Shard, the human was finished scraping the gunk out of her nails, and was wiping her still-slightly-bleeding arm on her hair. She already had faint smudges of rust-colored highlights still sifted through her hair.

"You're giving the human _food_?" Knockout protested in response to Megatron's order, "I've already had a Vehicon provide it with water!"

"Water and food aren't the same thing, you aoidophobic twitchy!" Shard retorted to him, crossing her arms.

"'Aoidophobic'?" Megatron inquired, and Shard shrugged, "Afraid of singing. Specifically, _my_ singing. Of _DOOOOMM!_"

Knockout twitched, causing Shard to smirk.

Megatron just looked even more befuddled at this, or at least as befuddled as Megatron ever looks, and walked away, muttering in Cybertronian about humans ruining his troop's sanity.

**Whoa! I actually managed to type all this up and update it all in one afternoon/ evening! I'm so happy with myself!**


	16. Chapter 16

**Hello! I've got a bit of a headache, so I dunno how long it's gonna take me to type all this and update. But, I will try.**

**To ****AutobotSoShi****: Hahaha, thanks! Actually, it's just 'The Doom Song' that he hates/fears, 'cause Shard got it stuck in his processor. Hmm, very good point, but I think he minds having scrapes or dents on his shiny finish more than** **germs.**

**To ****lydiathetigeropean****: Heh heh, yup. Shard tends to have that effect on people: insanity! Thank you! Oh, you're welcome.**

**To ****Iceshadow911247****: Hehehe, yeeeesssssss, 'The Doom Song' it is, mwahahaha! Oh wait, you now know of 'The Doom Song'? Is it because I wrote of it, or have you watched 'Invader Zim'? The madness can be addicting and repelling at the same time! Hahaha, yeah, sanity **_**can**_** be distinctly lacking in TFP (like when they kill off such epic characters). **

**To ****Abyss Prime****: Yippee! I'm so very pleased that you enjoyed my chapter and found it to be funny! Ok, you're very welcome.**

**Now the chapter!**

Shard thanked Caterwaul for showing her where Soundwave's room was, confusedly dismissed the feline's serious offer to keep watch, and went in. Caterwaul didn't seem to trust Soundwave, and Shard wondered why.

But she shrugged off the concern as the door opened (again, _HOW?!_ How do those doors open?!) and Soundwave tilted his head down to look at her.

The 'Con didn't _have_ to face her to see her, Shard figured; he could just look down with his optics, hidden behind the visor. Or link to one of his many hidden cameras around the ship. If he'd done so, it might've looked like he was ignoring her. But he didn't, and this pleased the girl, since she figured that he was visibly acknowledging her out of courtesy.

Having thusly satisfied herself in her mental evaluation/guess as to how she should interpret this simple gesture, Shard told Soundwave the reason for her coming to his room.

"Hi. I'm here to help take off all those magnets."

Soundwave replayed a choppy, garbled recording- probably from one of his cameras- of Megatron telling the girl to do this. Megatron sounded like an disturbingly ill Chihuahua.

Shard nodded.

There was an awkward silence.

...

*blink blink*

...

Shard looked at the floor.

Should she wait until something happened? Nothing was likely to happen.

Should she just walk into the Decepticon's room? That'd be rude.

Should she start removing the magnets now? The 'Con might want to sit down or something, and Shard didn't want to have him blocking the hallway by accident.

Should she say something? Say _what_? Oh, too late- her mouth had already decided to open and start to speak words.

"Um, hi. Again. I hafta get the um, magnets off. Like I said. I know you heard but, uh, I... dunno... Uh. I'm gonna get food. Can I help now? Taking off the... magnets? I mean?"

Shard almost grimaced as she mentally bonked her head against some random wall for being so... non-speaking-able. Spending almost a year conversing only with/at cats, dogs, occasional birds, rats who she apologized to for killing, and herself, wasn't exactly a good conversational-skills-builder.

A movement caught Shard's eyes, and she flicked them up to glance at Soundwave, who was nodding. Wait, why was he nodding? Oh, right, magnets.

The Decepticon stepped back a couple steps in his room, keeping the door open and leaving plenty of room for Shard to come in. Invitation. The girl nodded a hasty thank-you and scooted inside the room quickly, head ducked embarrassedly.

Inside now, she glanced around. Nothing had changed since she'd last been in here, telling the 'Con whatever vaguely useful stuff she could think of about humans. What they ate, what they'd guess about the universe, what they could do, and some random stuff that not all humans could do.

Shard had demonstrated a couple of her 'talents,' mostly odd abilities that she amused herself with and scared others with. These included turning her face red and twisting around to make her spine make cracking noises. She'd occasionally seen other people do this too. Felt goooood, and had freaked out her mom. Ha ha.

Now, Shard told the Decepticon hesitantly, "I'm... I'm gonna take of the magnets now." She was aware of the fact that he already knew that, but she didn't want to startle him by suddenly climbing up his arm or something with no warning.

'Hmmm,' Shard thought as she began her task, 'Let's work from down up. This way it'll be more comfortable and easier for him to stand up without the magnets clogging up his joints.'

The girl plucked off all the magnets on Soundwave's pointed feet, ankles, knees, and lower legs, then climbed up to rest on one knee joint so she could reach the upper leg. She was secretly worried that her weight might hurt him; the slender Decepticon looked kinda delicate.

Well, delicate for a giant metal person, whose thin fingers were about the size of the girl's entire arm.

Now came the trickier part. "Um, s-s'cuse me?" Shard inquired tentatively, "Um, could you please hold me up? So I can get the magnets off of your side?" She didn't like requesting help from anybody, because she didn't want to _need_ any help, _and_ she worried that she might be irritating the person.

Soundwave reached down one large, thin hand, and Shard climbed on, worried that she might accidentally hurt him. With removing magnets while climbing on _Megatron_, that'd been no problem, and she had kicked him whenever she had the chance to (discreetly) do so.

Soundwave was much nicer, and Shard took extra precaution to be careful while pulling magnets out of his joints, off of his armor, and off of one of his tentacle-claw thingies.

Then she slowly clambered up onto the Decepticon's shoulder, picking off all the magnets she could find, and stuffing them into her pocket. Who knew when they might end up being useful later?

Shard was faintly startled when she heard something, like a really faint, light humming, as she pried several magnets off of Soundwave's helm. It was sort of like that noise that sometimes people hear if they're near certain electrical appliances, that high-pitched noise that isn't really audible.

This was like that, but a _much_ nicer sound. Gentle and happy-sounding. Shard realized, as she pulled off another magnet, that it was coming from Soundwave. Like a cat purring, the girl thought, and smiled hugely; this was nice.

Soon, she had completely finished removing all of the magnets, and sat on the floor as Soundwave relayed this to Megatron. Said-Bossy 'Con then instructed Shard to go and remove all the magnets on Breakdown.

Slightly miffed at still no thank-you from the gray-armored slave-driver, Shard sighed and nodded. To her surprise, Soundwave showed her the way to the blue Decepticon's room, leading her all the way there.

Shard was very glad of his assistance, but something was worrying her; Breakdown didn't seem to like humans. How was she supposed to help him then?

**Sorry for not updating sooner! I have only my traditional excuses of homework and laziness to offer! Forgive? **


	17. Chapter 17

**Halloooo! ...Ok, yeah, that all. Now on to the lovely reviews!**

**To ****lydiathetigeropean****: Hmm, do you mean Breakdown? If so, then yes, I might try to write that for him. Aww, thanks you muchly!**

**To ****Guest****: Eh? ****Iceshadow911247****, izzat you? Ah, ok. If ya' look the song up, it's really silly, in the first episode of 'Invader Zim.' Heh heh, well, sort of; the humming noise is a sound he makes when he's really happy (at least in my Fanfic), the way that a cat purrs when it's happy. Yup (Oh, I just got the "we're off to see the wizard" Oz song in my head)! Yes, I hope indeed that I can make this chapter interesting and good.**

**To ****Abyss Prime****: Yay! Thank you muchly much for yer' forgiving-ness!**

**To ****zrexeartz****: Well, wait no longer 'cause here the chapter is!**

**And now, here indeed is the chappy-ter!**

Shard stood at the door to Breakdown's room nervously.

She glanced up at Soundwave with a quick smile, and told him gratefully, "Thanks for showing me the way here." He nodded and replayed, "Thanks."

About to leave, the quiet Decepticon paused, then lightly poked one of Shard's pockets with one finger. It was one of the pockets where Shard had placed the magnets.

Shard attempted to make a smile, but wasn't sure whether it should be innocent or apologetic. Soundwave poked the other pocket-with-magnets, then shook his head once. Shard drooped her head; she'd been planning on keeping them for some sort of prank or something.

"I'll put 'em over here," Shard told Soundwave apologetically, digging out the mound of magnets from one, then the other pocket, and placing them by the wall. This way, nobody'd step on them, and the 'Cons would be satisfied that Shard didn't have the magnets with her.

Soundwave nodded, then padded away, as silent as a cat. Shard smiled softly at the comparison, and then the smile faded into a sad frown. She missed the cats and dogs so much. Especially Phaser.

He'd be following her right now, twining himself between Shard's legs as she walked, hissing if Megatron were rude to her. And Phaser would lay on his back next to Shard as she rested, and play-fight her hand when they were both bored and tired.

'Well,' Shard told herself, 'Maybe if I do really well here, Megatron will let me go back home. At least for a visit. I need to name the kittens soon.' She knew that Megatron wasn't likely to do _anything_ nice for her, other than allow her some food to survive, but it was still a nice idea.

As was the idea to put dirt in the gray tyrant's energon. If she could only find it. And make sure Soundwave didn't see her doing it.

But back to the job at hand.

Shard knocked on the door to Breakdown's room hesitantly. To her, it was a reasonably loud enough noise. But when nothing happened for several seconds, she tried again, knocking hard enough that her finger-joints stung on the hard metal.

Nothing happened. She tried again, cringing at how loud it was. This wasn't working.

"H-hey!" Shard called timidly- she _hated_ calling to people, someone else might here and it made her feel silly-, "Um, I'm supposed to help get rid of the magnets M-Megatron told me to."

As she was knocking again, as hard as she could without really hurting her hand, the girl heard some movement from inside. She paused and stepped back, cautious.

The door opened, and the huge blue Decepticon was glaring down at her, his left yellow optic narrowed 's eyes almost instantly darted away to the floor.

"Caterwaul isn't here," the giant 'Con grunted, and the sentence sounded faintly like an accusation, instead of an offer of information.

"Uhh, no," Shard answered nervously, "She, um, Megatron sent her to get food. Fer' me." Breakdown's optic narrowed.

"Umm... I have to get the magnets off fer' you," Shard mumbled, hunching her shoulders slightly, "Megatron ask-... told me to."

"I heard the first time," Breakdown stated bluntly, a slight, deep growl of irritation in his voice. Shard hunched her shoulders further, "Ok. I- I'll do that now. If you want."

There was another faint growl as the huge 'Con turned away and stalked back into his room, leaving the door open for Shard to scuttle through.

The room, when Shard flicked her eyes up to look at around, was simple enough, with a couple sturdy shelves on the wall to the left. A ragged hole was letting wind through on the right wall, and there was a large table- with gadget-y objects on it- past that, with what must've been some kind of chair.

At the far wall, what was probably a bed- no, a berth, that was the word- looked like it'd been yanked up from a laying-down position to a sitting-up position, as if the 'Con wasn't comfortable laying down flat. There were dull scrape marks and dents on the wall there. Shard wondered if they were from lashing out at a bad dream.

"Well?" Breakdown stated, an edge of impatience in his voice as he sat on the huge chair-thing, "Get this over with already." Shard nodded hastily, and darted over. She noticed the enormous 'Con stiffening slightly, pulling his head back in an almost-grimace at her approach.

"Umm, ok," Shard mumbled, "Uh, let's see. Ok, here's a magnet here..." She picked it off of his lower leg. "Another one... here." She pulled that off too, continuing along while muttering to herself. She noticed that the 'Con was un-stiffening ever so slightly as the girl worked and talked to herself.

From what Shard had seen, the blue Decepticon's attitude towards her was similar to Megatwit's: hostile and wanting to have as little to do with her as possible.

But there were slight differences. While Megatron seemed to merely be scornful of the human's smallness, weak squishiness, etc, Breakdown seemed a bit more resentful and disgusted by her in general.

Shard supposed that it wasn't all that surprising. Compared to the giant, armored, gleaming Cybertronians, humans were small, squishy, slime-producing slugs. Ew. Or maybe jellyfish. Yes, jellyfish, but without the stingers.

When the girl told Breakdown that she needed to climb up to get the magnets off of his side, arms, and shoulders, he made a face that looked like a human's would if slimy worms were crawling on their hands. Revulsion and anger.

But after a couple seconds he gave a grudging, tense nod.

Shard quickly scurried up the Decepticon's thick left arm to remove the magnets, being as quick and light as possible.

She noticed that the limb she was climbing up was shaking a bit, and that Breakdown was glaring at her in disgust. Caterwaul had once told her that Breakdown didn't like humans in general, so at least Shard knew that Breakdown wasn't mad at her personally.

This didn't help though, when she was on his shoulder and reached out her arm to get a magnet off his head, and the Decepticon abruptly snapped "Get off!" Even as he spoke, the huge 'Con recoiled violently, making Shard lose her balance.

She gave a yelp as she fell, and gasped in relief when one of the 'Con's giant hands caught her. Shard was unnerved at his expression: a mix of revulsion, anger, and something... something almost like horror.

"Thanks," Shard whispered, shy from his reaction and grateful that he'd stopped her from falling. Then she muttered an "Urmff" of discomfort at how tight the enormous fingers clenching around her were. They kinda hurt.

Shard felt her lower ribs bending slightly, and she grunted as her stomach was compressed by the tight grip. The hand seemed to be quivering a little.

Then she was on the ground, breathing a bit heavily as the giant Decepticon pulled his fist-clenched hand away from her. Shard scrunched herself away a little bit, and leaned against the nearest wall, breathing slowly.

She looked up in surprise when Caterwaul called through the door, which opened, and the feline walked in. Said-feline looked at Shard and Breakdown in concern and slight alarm, noting their unhappy expressions.

"What happened?" Caterwaul asked seriously, addressing them both with concern. Before Breakdown could answer, Shard spoke, "Not much. I'm just a bit tired. He's so big it's hard to reach all the magnets, 'specially the ones on his head. Could you help me get 'em?"

Caterwaul had been focusing on Shard, so she didn't see Breakdown's optic widen in surprise. The feline nodded, looking a bit worried. She perched on Breakdown's right shoulder, leaning her furry side against him as Shard removed the last couple magnets on his head and left shoulder.

The girl could see that Breakdown and Caterwaul cared quite a lot for one another, and she hadn't wanted to get the huge Decepticon in trouble with the feline. That was why she'd glazed over the fact that she'd almost fallen, and been slightly squished.

When Shard finally finished removing all of the magnets, she headed towards the room's door, and was a bit surprised to hear the huge blue Decepticon mutter a "Thanks."

Shard nodded, pleased. Then she went to go devour the food that Caterwaul had brought for her. She hoped there was canned raviolis!

**Aloha! Please don't get mad at Breakdown for being rude to Shard, ok? He's had a terrible experience with humans before, and doesn't like the idea of another one climbing all over him. So, there ya go, hope ya liked the chapter. Sorry it wasn't nearly as funny as some of the others.**


	18. Chapter 18

**Halloo! A bird hit our window and left feathers on it earlier, but it flew away, so I hope it's alright. Yeah, that's pretty much all the news I gots at this point.**

**To ****AutobotSoShi****: Yeah, I agree. (Those **_**FILTHY**_** M.E.C.H. humans really hurt him. **_**Hsss**_**.) Thanks, Shard likes coming up with pranks (I do toooo...)! **

**To ****lydiathetigeropean****: Yippee! Thank you very much! I surprised myself by making the chapter so long.**

**To ****Iceshadow911247****: ...Whaaaat? Do you mean being not signed in? Aw, it's not all his fault! Pffftt, ha ha ha, yes, Caterwaul saves the day! Okeedokey, it's just that I try to add in humor whenever I can, but there weren't many places I could put it in fer' that chappy-ter. Thanks!**

**To ****Abyss Prime****: Ah, alrighty then, thank you. I'm not used to writing mostly-serious chapters, usually crazy/ exciting ones.**

**To ****zrexheartz****: Oh, thank you. I'd been worried that the Lack Of Funniness might make the chapter too depressing or something. (Warning: foreshadowing!)**

**And so, onwards we go with the chapter! –Oh, but first I gotta go feed our many fish... Ok I'm back! NOW the chapter!**

After Shard wolfed down some of the food that Caterwaul had gathered for her (for some reason it included a bottle of tomato juice) she went to de-magnet the three Vehicons who had accompanied Megaron and thus shared his magnety fate.

The Vehicons were actually fine with having the little human girl assist them, and seemed pleasantly surprised when she spoke with them. True, their replies were a bit brief, but Shard didn't mind.

Shard thought about asking the Vehicons why everyone else seemed to act as if they (the Vehicons) were disposable. But the girl decided not to ask that, since it'd be rude, and her sense of tact was highly impaired/ lacking/ nearly non-existent.

So, instead of talking/ asking about that, or how funny Megatron must've looked when he got stuck in the magnets (Soundwave might overhear, and then they'd be in trouble) Shard asked about the tomato smell in the ship.

She started laughing about The Skunk Incident, then looked horrified when the Vehicons told her that Caterwaul had killed the human afterwards. Had that been the same human that Caterwaul had mentioned tasted bad when she shredded it's leg?

True, in regards to blood and such, Shard was not very squeamish, but it was still awful to think that Caterwaul had actually killed someone.

She whispered this to the feline that night as she curled up next to her, back to back, to sleep. "...I didn't," Caterwaul whispered, careful not to take any chance of Soundwave overhearing with the cameras in the hall.

"Really?" Shard whispered, perking up. "Yes," Caterwaul explained, "The girl hid a bag of that red juice under her shirt, so it looked like she bled when I 'killed' her. And then I returned the little human to the Autobots when I got a chance."

"Oh, ok," Shard told her, "Cool. So who was the human that you said tasted awful when you bit their leg?"

Caterwaul growled slightly, "A sick, terrible human. He leads a group of other awful humans, trying to hurt Cybertronians to steal information on how we work inside. Filth."

Shard wrinkled her nose. If she came in contact with these bad humans, she'd probably bite them too. Not that her little human-teeth would do as much as Caterwauls dagger-like fangs, but still.

"Have they managed to hurt anyone?" Shard asked quietly. Caterwaul bristled slightly, letting out a short, harsh hiss, "Yes."

"Did they...kill anyone?" the girl whispered timidly. Caterwaul let out a breath, sounding a bit relieved, "No." Shard didn't ask anymore, happy to drop the subject.

A couple days later, Shard was securing a hopefully-permanent place for herself among the Decepticons. Not exactly a prestigious one, but useful enough.

Basically, she was the maid. The girl would pick out bits of dirt or rock from the Decepticons' armor, like picking fleas off a dog. It had turned out that the tiny debris could be almost as irritating as magnets.

Well, at least it justified her being there on the ship (Shard later learned that the ship was called 'The Nemesis,' but she still always thought of it as 'the ship.'). It gave her a defense if Megatwit ever decided that there was no point in letting her live.

After the gathered food (most of which was in cans: veggies, sliced peaches, beans, and one of sliced mushrooms) ran out, Shard thought that she should be allowed to go back home and get some food herself (which would _not_ include the slimy mushrooms). Then, she could go back to the ship whenever she was needed.

Of course, Megatron's immediate answer was "NO."

"Why not?" Shard had questioned exasperatedly, and Megatron had retorted that it'd be too much of a bother and a waste of energon, and that the girl would just run away anyhow.

"I promise not to run away!" Shard exclaimed, "Or, if you don't believe me, stick a tracking device on me or something! To- to keep track!"

Megatron had been surprised at this; it sounded as if the human actually _meant_ it! And she did. All Shard wanted to do was be able to visit the cats and dogs (and name the kittens, they _needed_ names!) and get some food to not starve!

The girl told Soundwave all this as she cleaned traces of dirt out his of arm-joints, and off-and-on hummed parts of "Sound The Bugle." She liked singing, but humming was easier for songs that she couldn't remember all the lyrics for.

Shard really didn't mind being 'trapped' on the ship; it was an exciting place, she had something to do, and the persons there were really interesting!

Said-persons didn't act like she was weird and whisper about her (like some kids in school whenever she _tried_ to be 'sociable'), and they could understand what she was saying and respond understandably (unlike some of the animals at the apartment-shelter-hiding place, the strays who didn't know her well).

The silent Decepticon displayed, on his awesome visor, a visual of bossy Megatron. Then he pointed at Shard, suggesting that she tell said-Megatron this.

Shard grimaced. Blurting out an argument at the enormous grey-ish Decepticon leader spur-of-the-moment was one thing, but quite another to try to plan out or even think about.

But Soundwave repeated his suggestion, and Shard sighed. Well, no harm in trying a second time, except for the possible- and highly likely- harm of Megatron getting irritated at her. There could be _much_ harm _then_.

However, since the girl apparently had Soundwave's approval, she felt that her chances of extreme injury were lessened. (Even Caterwaul had a measure of respect for the silent 'Con. And that was saying something.)

So, with Caterwaul lurking around the corner in case of emergency, and the Communications Officer discreetly backing her up, Shard explained her request to Megatron.

As calmly as possible. Which was hard, because earlier it'd only been Shard's snappish temper that'd given her the foolish bravery to argue with the giant tyrant.

However, Megatron grudgingly agreed (and almost made it seem like it'd been his own idea all along) to let Shard return to the human town –temporarily!- to get food.

He'd allow her to use the groundbridge once every two weeks to gather food so that she wouldn't starve. Letting her die would have been a waste of a magnet-remover.

So, highly pleased to be allowed to go home for food, _and_ be not-dead, Shard gratefully thanked the three Decepticons, though she thanked Caterwaul and Soundwave when Megatron was out of earshot.

At Megatron's order, Soundwave built a (relatively) small tracking device, which he fitted into a large, thick metal 'bracelet' for Shard to wear.

It was over two inches wide and dark indigo, with bright purple circuitry lines along the surface, and one large black rectangle on top. There, a bright green Decepticon insignia gleamed.

The 'bracelet' had a speaker/ listening device and camera hidden in it, and the insignia would glow whenever they were in use. Shard liked the bracelet _very_ much. Even if it was only there to keep track of her.

Now, poised on the outer fringes of the town, Shard gave a quick shudder at the lingering tingly-weirdness feeling from going through the groundbridge. Then she straightened up, took a deep breath of fresh air (uncomfortably warm, but still good), and raced toward the town.

Though she was still hungry, Shard's first obligation was to find and be with the animals back home. She slowed after a minute or two of hard running, already tired. She was only good at short-distance sprinting and being low on food didn't help either.

But less than five minutes of slow walking brought her energy level rocketing up, so she poured on the speed, aided by adrenaline and excitement as she practically _flew_ the rest of the way home.

Or, _almost_ the rest of the way home.

There were a bunch of people wandering around there. But they weren't just random town-citizen-people.

_These_ people moved around like spies, and wore dark gray suits and goggles or something over their eyes. And some carried really big gun-thingies.

The girl shivered in revulsion at how close they were to her home, roaming around the street in the early evening semi-darkness. Wrinkling her nose in a noiseless snarl, Shard stalked away to hide behind an old dumpster and some ancient garbage, out of the creepy people's sight.

She spotted one person without a mask, a male with dark pink scars on his face, and a highly unpleasant, arrogant expression on his face.

Shard glowered silently. Who _were_ these people?

**Hiii! So very Very VERY sorry for not updating! I wasn't allowed to go on Fanfiction forvery long, so I didn't have time to update! My fault for laziness and school's fault for time-killing homework! **

**So! Guess you can figure out who **_**these**_** scumbags are, skulking around Shard's home...**


	19. Chapter 19

**Hello! I'm on Spring Vacation here, and managed to finish the homework I'd had a couple days ago. Or yesterday. I forget. Now for the reviews! Wow, there's a lot! You people are AWESOME! Thank you all so much for all these great reviews you give me!**

**To ****zrexheartz****: Yep, I hates them muchly as well. *growls at them***

**To ****AutobotSoShi****: Yep, indeed it is them. Please don't use that phrase, I believe it's inappropriate. Though Caterwaul did do quite a lot of tearing in "Caterwaul" chapter 40.**

**To ****lydiathetigeropean****: Actually, they didn't kill him in the show, the Lousy Bug did. (I refuse to call that evil spider by her name.) Oh, they wiilll pay...**

**To ****Iceshadow911247****: Hm hm hm, yes, the weather is crazy these days. I love the snow! Snowball fights, snow-days, sledding! *growls* Yup, it's them, scumbags. Heh heh, I notice that a lot of persons are using that insult here. **

**To ****panthergirl****: Wow, cool username. And yes it is indeed the wretched gang of evil M.E.C.H. scum. Oh, yes, indeed they shall pay! Haha, yes, you did mention that. Oh, and thank you very much for reviewing!**

**And now for the chapter! *cringes slightly* Beware.**

Shard hissed under her breath, narrowing her eyes. (**Haha, I almost typed 'optics'!**) She cocked her head to one side, noticing the long, ragged marks around the arrogant leader-person's right eye.

The scars looked like huge claw-marks, as if a large animal had lashed out at the man's face. But these marks looked like they went in deep; they were long, roughly the same length.

The scars couldn't be just a random swipe of something's claws. They looked more like a deliberate, long, slow _drag_ of something's claws.

What sort of something? Caterwaul maybe? But she wouldn't let any random humans see here, much less... hurt... them...

The guy seemed to have a faint limp. Caterwaul had said that she'd partially torn apart an evil human male's leg. Was this that human? He sure _looked_ evil.

But of course, Shard didn't know for sure. How could she find out? It wasn't as if she could ask the-... No wait, she could ask Caterwaul!

"Hey," Shard breathed, her voice the quietest whisper she could manage at her bracelet, "Hey, guys. There's a bunch of people here. They're wearing uniforms."

The girl peered out from a gap between the dumpster and garbage she was hiding behind, hoping to get another glance at what the creepy people looked like.

These were definitely "_peeeeopllle_," a stretched out and hissed form of the word "people." Shard used this term when describing noisy crowds or highly unfamiliar or unpleasant groups of people. Normal or Ok people were "persons." And people in general were "people."

Shard ducked down when one of the _peeeeopllle_ started taking. She grimaced and silently bared her teeth at the voice. Ugh, so these creepy _peeeeopllle_ looked _and_ sounded evil.

The girl missed the first bit of what the guy was saying, because she spotted a dog - one of _hers_: Jabberwocky - coming out of a distant building. He sniffed at the air, and looked in Shard's and the creepy group's direction.

"Shh," Shard whispered, though she knew Jabberwocky couldn't hear her from so far away, "Go back. Hide. I'll come when I can. Stay safe, you silly dog." Then she checked to see if the group of _peeeeopllle_ had seen or heard herself or Jabberwocky.

They hadn't, thank goodness.

A quick peek showed that it was the old guy with scars talking. Shard now thought of him as 'Old scar man.' Or maybe 'evil leader guy.' Or a combination of the two.

"...And feel free to practice your shooting," the creepy man was telling the others, "On anything that gives you trouble."

And with that, he turned to look towards the dog. And grinned. And raised his gun.

"_NO!_" Shard shrieked as she leapt out of her meager hiding place, sending bits of disintegrated garbage flying, "NO! Leave him _alone!_"

Jabberwocky barked in surprise, just as the humans twitched in surprise and looked towards Shard. She spared a quick, distracted hiss for them.

The girl now silently thanked the fact that Jabberwocky was not very fond of her and would only come willingly if Shard was near Coni (the female husky), or had fresh food. So, since Shard had neither of these with her, the dog bounded away.

Though, that could've been from the fact that the girl was growling/roaring "RAAAHHHH!" and waving her arms to scare him away and back to safety.

As if annoyed at missing his chance to murder a relatively-innocent dog, the evil man fired off a shot anyway, and Shard screamed when she heard the shot, and Jabberwocky's yelp.

But she gasped in relief when she saw the dog leap and skid to a stop, turning around to snarl and bark furiously at the man, probably swearing vengeance in dog language.

Then the dog raced away, blood dribbling down the upper part of his left hind leg. The bullet or blast or whatever had grazed his leg. He would be ok.

She heard a noise from her bracelet's speaker, like a gasp. It sounded like Caterwaul, then like Caterwaul speaking urgently.

Shard panted, terrified and nervous, eyes wide as she re-focused on the group of CREEPY MEN WITH GUNS staring at her! 'Well,' she thought deliriously, 'At least I don't have to worry about having a polite conversation with them!'

"L-leave the animals alone," she told them shakily, trying to sound firm, even while her eyes darted away from looking at any of them, and her shoulders shook, "Th-ey've... done nothing wrong t-t'you. Go away."

"You stay out of this, you worthless delinquent," the evil scar-man spat at her contemptuously. (**I was gonna have him call Shard a 'hobo,' but I can't imagine him saying that, or I start grinning.**)

Ok. _That_ was it! That annoyed Shard enough to make her snappish.

"_Wow_, great job, _genius_," she retorted sarcastically, "Insulting homeless kids makes you _soo braa-ave_! You must feel so proud a' yerself!"

She skittered backwards a bit when the scowling man stalked forward. "You mind your own business," he ordered, "Or you'll soon wish you had!"

"H-had what?" Shard hissed/panted nervously, backing away, "A lack of a brain?"

The evil man's face snarled as he lunged at her. Shard shrieked and leapt back, stumbling, feeling the guy's large hand snatch hers. She kicked his leg with one foot and pushed off, causing the guy's balance to waver slightly, and she yanked her hand away.

She thought she caught a glimpse of bright green light in the distance, a whirling noise. Groundbridge? The thought took barely a second, and she had to run!

Then she was racing to escape, hearing her own high-pitched gasping as she panted to her tracking/ communication bracelet, "Help! Help, help. Help!"

The frantic girl darted past the dumpster where she'd hid before, around the corner of a building- _her_ building, her _home_- and scrambled through an open window, still gasping in fear.

She thought she heard shots fired, and the whirling noise got louder and then vanished. There was an infuriated, snarling roar, and Shard really hoped that it was Caterwaul, not the evil _peeeeopllle_ coming after her!

She tumbled through the window, and let out a whimpering moan as she accidentally somersaulted down and landed on a small pile of sharp rocks. _Ow_.

_Why,_ were there rocks under the window?! ...Oh yeah, she'd put them there in case any random person tried to get in without her permission. Or, at all. Greeaat.

There were louder shots and snarling outside, and yelling now too.

Groaning in discomfort and annoyance at herself, Shard sat up, scraping pointy rocks off of her lower back. Ouch again. Stupid burglar-paranoia rocks.

Shard interrupted her "ow ow ow" muttering, to gasp in surprise. As her eyes re-adjusted to the darker inside of her home, Shard realized that there were small shapes moving near her.

A silvery shape... and a white shape with brown stripes... Phaser! Lightray!

The two cats stared back, eyes glinting. They were standing between the girl and their kittens, who were mewling in a heap, snuggled in a nest of cloth. Then Phaser crept forward toward Shard slowly, nose twitching and ears tilted forward.

"Phaser," Shard breathed, "It's me, buddy!" The feline cocked his head, ears perking up, and he "mreowl"ed in what Shard knew was relief or joy. Phaser bounded onto Shard's lap, nuzzling her face with his head and purring.

"Oh, I missed you guys!" Shard gasped in a whisper, grinning ecstatically and rubbing Phaser's head behind the ears, "How you both? And the kittens?"

Phaser responded, "Meowl mraow, mewl prrrmmrrew! Reaowwl?"

"I'm ok," Shard laughed quietly, thrilled, "Oh, I love you so much Phaser! Ahh I've missed you! Maybe later you can come meet Caterwaul, huh? Oh, that'll be great! Once yer' little ones have grown some more, ok?"

"Mraow-weowl? Mroweewl, prrrrrrr!" "Meyowrrrrl," Lightray added in mater-of-factly, making Shard smile even wider.

She gently scratched under Lightray's chin, and the mother cat purred, half-closing her eyes happily.

Phaser gave a mock-indignant "Mrowwl!" at being temporarily ignored, and Shard laughed as quietly as she could, cuddling her friend to her chest, and kissing his head as she stroked her fingers through his petting-smoothed silvery fur.

Phaser licked her cheek with his rough pink tongue as the girl nuzzled him back, tickling his tummy with one hand and cuddling him to her with the other. The cat gently dabbed at her nose with one soft, furry paw, making Shard chuckle.

Oh, she wanted to stay _so badly_, but that evil man might still be looking for her, and she had to get some food and then go back to the ship as soon as possible.

Shard took a deep breath and sighed, holding her friend a little away from her face, "Ok, Phaser. There's bad people nearby. Very bad _peeeeopllle_, and we have to stay hidden and safe from them. Ok?"

Phaser cocked his head to one side, listening to her, eyes bright as always. His emerald eyes narrowed fractionally and he bared his teeth in a silent hiss at the mention of 'bad _peeeeopllle_.'

Lightray added in her own fierce agreement, "Mraaawrrlll, hkhhaahhhhhh."

"I agree. I don't want them to hurt any of us, ok?" Shard asked gently, "so I'm gonna go hide upstairs, if I have to, and you and Lightray and the kittens stay hidden. Ok?"

"Mreeaaaawrrrr! Mr-row," Phaser stated, kneading Shard's shirt with his claws, which lightly pierced and clung to the fabric, and staring up into her eyes.

"Rrrraaaowrrr," Lightray growled in agreement, sitting down firmly in front of their four kittens, wrapping her tail around her paws and thrusting her head towards Shard.

"I _have_ to leave," Shard whispered apologetically, "I'm sorry. I _will_ come back when I can, Ok? I promise. I _will_ come back."

"Mrewp," Phaser sighed in a cat-pout, ears turning down and back slightly. "Mrraaaawrraaawr, hkhaaaahh," Lightray protested.

She'd always been the more stubborn of the pair. Phaser usually listened to Shard, even if he wasn't happy about it.

"No, Lightray," Shard told the female feline, "I'm _really_ sorry, but I _have_ to leave. I'll be back soon, I _promi_-"

She didn't finish.

There was a loud noise, and something big tumbled in through the window. Shard yelped in shock as it rolled forward, then quickly stood up. HUMAN!

"AAA!" Shard screamed, stumbling backwards, trying to get to the stairs. She didn't dare turn her back to the man- it was the evil man from before - because then he might catch her.

He was also blocking the door, and it would take too long for Shard to slither through the window; he could just grab her feet!

The two cats hissed, partly in irritation at the rude interruption and abrupt lack of cuddles from their human, and partly in warning and defense for their kittens and said-human.

Shard jabbed out at the man with her metal blade, hoping to keep him at bay. At least until she could get upstairs and then maybe jump out a window to escape. But she couldn't leave her friends!

The man tried to grab the blade away from Shard, foolishly stepping way too close to Phaser's and Lightray's kittens.

The duo snarled, Lightray crouching over the kittens to shield them, and Phaser darting forward to protect both them and Lightray. He hissed, baring his fangs and drawing back his ears in fury and defiance.

The man kicked at Phaser, who easily leaped out of the way, staying between his family and the evil man, whose lousy aim caused himself to stumble.

Shard smirked a tiny bit, hopping up a couple stairs. If she could draw him away from the cats, maybe they could all somehow escape...

Enraged, the evil man scooped up a piece of a brick on the floor and hurled it at the cats.

Phaser remained standing directly in front of his family, protecting them.

The brick was large, and heavy, and jagged, and thrown hard.

Phaser loyally stayed where he was.

...

"_PHASER!_"


	20. Phaser

**Hello. I know that probably a lot of readers are going to be very unhappy about this chapter. I really am sorry.**

**To ****Lydiathetigeropean****: ...I'm really sorry. *makes a very sad face*** **I sorta felt I had to include a tragedy in the story.**

**To ****Iceshadow911247****: Eh, I dunno, really; the weather is completely insane these days. I agree that M.E.C.H. are evil poop-faces! ...*hunches shoulders* Phaser appreciates your empathy.**

**To ****zrexheartz****: ...*lowers eyes very sadly* Yes. I'm sorry. Phaser is very brave.**

**To ****Abyss Prime****: ... *winces* Yer' gonna hunt me down with no remorse then. My sister, FireFlare, was horrified and angry at me when she read this chapter.**

**For hopefully cheering you up, here is a Rough translation of what Phaser and Lightray had been saying in the previous chapter: **

**Phaser****: "mreowl"s in relief or joy, bounds onto Shard's lap, nuzzling her face with his head and purring. "**_**Yay! I missed you!**_**"**

**Shard****: "Oh, I missed you guys! How you both? And the kittens?"**

**Phaser****: "Meowl mraow, mewl prrrmmrrew! Reaowwl?" "**_**We're fine, the kittens are doing wonderfully! How have you been?**_**"**

**Shard****: "I'm ok. Oh, I love you so much Phaser! Ahh I've missed you! Maybe later you can come meet Caterwaul, huh? Oh, that'll be great! Once yer' little ones have grown some more, ok?"**

**Phaser****: "Mraow-weowl? Mroweewl, prrrrrrr!" "**_**What's this new word 'Caterwaul'? Ok, since-you-seem-happy-about-whatever-you're-saying, it must be good. I love our kittens!**_**"**

**Lightray****: adds in mater-of-factly."Meyowrrrrl." "**_**Yes, our children are safe, we are together, and this is good.**_**"**

**Shard****: gently scratches under Lightray's chin **

**Lightray****: purrs, half-closing her eyes happily. "**_**Ooh, that feels niiice. I like our good human. I'm glad we keep her around.**_**"**

**Phaser****: a mock-indignant "Mrowwl!" at being ignored. "**_**Hey! Pet me too!**_**"**

**Shard****: laughs. "Ok, Phaser. There's bad people nearby. Very bad peeeeopllle, and we have to stay hidden and safe from them. Ok?"**

**Phaser****: emerald eyes narrow, bares his teeth in a silent hiss. "**_**That word-sound, 'bad peeeeopllle,' means not-good humans! Grr, I'll hurt them if they try to harm my family.**_**"**

**Lightray**** "Mraaawrrlll, hkhhaahhhhhh." "**_**I will fight and hurt any not-good humans too, if they try to hurt us.**_**"**

**Shard****: "I agree. I don't want them to hurt any of us, ok? So I'm gonna go hide upstairs, if I have to, and you and Lightray and the kittens stay hidden. Ok?"**

**Phaser****: "Mreeaaaawrrrr! Mr-row," "**_**Hey don't go, you just came back! I'm staying with you.**_**"**

**Lightray****: "Rrrraaaowrrr," "**_**It's dangerous alone, so now we all stay together.**_**"**

**Shard****: "I have to leave, I'm sorry. I will come back when I can, Ok? I promise. I will come back."**

**Phaser****: sighs in a cat-pout, ears turning down and back slightly. "Mrewp," **_**"*sighs* Phooey. Ok, but I don't wanna let you leave.**_**"**

**Lightray****: "Mrraaaawrraaawr, hkhaaaahh," "**_**Oh no you don't. You are NOT leaving to be in danger again, it's bad for you to leave so long! We're staying with you even if you say no, so deal with it.**_** "**

**Also, I watched the new episode of "Doctor Who," about WiFi, and the name of a company there was "The Shard"! Weird, yes?**

**And now, the chapter of Phaser.**

"_PHASER!_" Shard screamed, and Lightray shrieked.

_Phaser__: "mreowl"s in relief or joy, bounds onto Shard's lap, nuzzling her face with his head and purring. "__**Yay! I missed you!**__"_

_Shard__: "Oh, I missed you guys! How you both? And the kittens?"_

The girl leapt off the stairs she had stood on, stumbled, and lurched up again immediately.

The wicked human man was getting to his feet, and Shard barreled into him, shoving him over as she swung around to reach Phaser.

The silver cat was slowly sinking down to the floor, his legs trembling as he crumpled to the ground, Lightray trying to hold him up. His emerald eyes were narrowed to slits as he hissed out a breath.

"Phaser, Phaser, c'mon, it's ok, it's ok," Shard panted breathlessly as she instantly knelt beside him and his mate "mraaow"ed worriedly, "I'm here, it's ok, I'll help, it's ok, you're ok, please be ok, c'mon please be ok...!"

_Phaser__: "Meowl mraow, mewl prrrmmrrew! Reaowwl?" "__**We're fine, the kittens are doing wonderfully! How have you been?**__"_

_Shard__: "I'm ok. Oh, I love you so much Phaser! Ahh I've missed you! Maybe later you can come meet Caterwaul, huh? Oh, that'll be great! Once yer' little ones have grown some more, ok?"_

There was a loud noise as something big hurtled through the door- literally through it, tearing part of the door apart. The something was huge and a dark silvery purple, with a spiked tail and yellow eyes.

It- Caterwaul- crashed into the evil human, snarling. As long as they stayed away from Phaser, Shard let herself forget them.

_Phaser__: "Mraow-weowl? Mroweewl, prrrrrrr!" "__**What's this new word 'Caterwaul'? Ok, since-you-seem-happy-about-whatever-you're-saying, it must be good. I love our kittens!**__"_

_Lightray__: adds in mater-of-factly."Meyowrrrrl." "__**Yes, our children are safe, we are together, and this is good.**__"_

Then the felines hissed viciously as something grabbed Shard's shoulder. The girl whipped around in fury, recoiling as she hissed and snapped her teeth at the horrible man's hand, which drew back.

Shard continued her hiss, which rose in volume as she widened her eyes and contorted her face in rage, mouth wide open and teeth bared.

Phaser, still crouched on the floor, lifted his head and hissed, though there was a gurgling sound in his throat, and Lightray lunged forward, lashing out with her claws at the adult human, murder blazing in her eyes.

Caterwaul snagged the human with her teeth, yanking him away from Shard and her family to hurl him outside, where the Cybertronian feline quickly followed and continued causing more painful injuries.

Shard glanced out, then immediately looked back to Phaser, who had a dark puddle of blood slowly forming underneath himself.

_Shard__: gently scratches under Lightray's chin _

_Lightray__: purrs, half-closing her eyes happily. "__**Ooh, that feels good. I like our good human. I'm glad we keep her around.**__"_

_Phaser__: a mock-indignant "Mrowwl!" at being ignored. "__**Hey! Pet me too!**__"_

The girl scooped the cat into her arms as gently as she could, though he still arched his back and hissed in pain, writhing.

One of his paws clawed at the air, ripping four thin, shallow tracks down the girl's lower right arm, nicking the tracking bracelet.

The cuts stung. But they didn't matter, so Shard ignored them. She was more worried about the trickling rivers of crimson flowing from Phaser's stomach onto her arms and hands.

The dark liquid was slick, coating Phaser's bright, silver fur as Shard tried to gently wipe it away. More kept coming.

A piece of something hard and rough, slimy with blood, tumbled to the ground.

It was a fragment of the brick. Shard wanted to hurl it away as hard as she could, but it was just a tiny object, no threat right now, like a little pebble. Like a baby bird.

What was she thinking?! She had to help Phaser! Ignore the stupid rubble!

Shard shook her head for a split second, pushing her long, dangling brown hair out of her eyes. The side of her face suddenly felt a smear of warm and wet. It was in her hair, too.

"C'mon, you're gonna be ok, you'll be ok," Shard whispered to Phaser, carefully stroking his head with her less-bloody hand as she examined his stomach. It was hard to see anything behind the thick fur and equally thick blood.

_Shard__: laughs. "Ok, Phaser. There's bad people nearby. Very bad peeeeopllle, and we have to stay hidden and safe from them. Ok?"_

"C'mon Phaser, c'mon please be ok, please c'mon please, come ON!" Shard pleaded, then berated herself, "Quit _talking_, just _help_ 'im! C'mon c'mon c'moonn just _THINK_ of something! Think of something NOW!"

The girl glanced around desperately, hoping to find some cloth to at least stop some of the bleeding, but saw none.

"I'll be right back, Phaser, I promise," Shard whispered to him quickly, laying him as gently as she could on the ground near his family. Then she dashed upstairs to her 'bed,' a jumbled pile of a sheet and blanket in a corner.

Shard yanked away the thin blanket and aced downstairs, almost tripping over the cloth. Once she was back with Phaser, who was being groomed by Lightray, the girl pressed a corner of the cloth to Phaser's ragged wound.

Phaser howled in pain at the pressure on his torn flesh, and flailed his paws, shuddering and coughing thickly as he twisted about.

It sounded as if he were choking something out of his mouth, and spots of blood abruptly spattered the hard ground in front of Phaser's silvery head.

'Wait,' Shard suddenly remembered, 'Saliva helps to clot blood!' With this thought, she gave a clean part of the blanket a huge lick, and pressed that to Phaser's bloody stomach.

The feline moaned, squeezing his eyes closed and hissing faintly. Shard _hated_ the fact that her actions were hurting him, but she had to do _something_ to try to heal him!

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Phaser, buddy, I'm really sorry," she told him hoarsely, "I'm trying, I'm trying the best that I..." Shard trailed off.

What _was_ her best? What _was_ the most that she could do for him? And how could she tell if she was truly doing her absolute best?

No matter, she had to keep trying!

_Phaser__: emerald eyes narrow, bares his teeth in a silent hiss. "__**That word-sound, 'bad peeeeopllle,' means not-good humans! RRRrr, I'll fight them if they try to harm my family.**__"_

Lightray was hissing and growling on and off, pacing like a trapped tigress, and alternating between licking Phaser and licking their kittens to comfort them.

The four kittens seemed confused, sniffing the air and stumbling over on their little wobbly legs toward Phaser.

'Why is there a blood-smell like dead prey here?' they seemed to be wondering. One tottered over and uncertainly licked Phaser's face, causing him to open his eyes a little and lick her, too.

Shard felt her face tingling and eyes burning, and tears abruptly formed, making her blink rapidly . She couldn't remember the last time she had cried.

She gently pushed away one kitten who was trying to play with Phaser's tail, which was limp. This confused the little one, who was expecting his daddy to move the tail/ Long Furry Chase-Toy.

"No," she whispered to the kitten, finding that she was unable to speak except through a whisper. The kitten gnawed her finger with little needle-teeth, impatient to go play with Phaser,

Shard cringed and shook her head, one hand still pressing the cloth to Phaser's wound.

It felt very warm where her hand was, and blood was seeping through the fabric and onto her hand. Phaser's tense body was gradually going limp, as though he were too exhausted to keep up his rigid shuddering.

Blood was steadily dripping out of his mouth, making little fireworks-shapes of red on the dirty floor. One of the kittens sniffed at it, and sneezed when the blood stuck to her nose.

"Don't do that," Shard rasped, "Yer' Daddy isn't going to like seeing his blood all over your face after he recovers."

'It'll take a while, right? But he _will_ recover, right?' Shard thought to herself, getting frantic. Her throat felt like a large stone was pressing into it, and her vision was blurring.

"Salt water," she whispered hopelessly trying to push away the notion that Phaser _wouldn't_ recover, "Like ocean water. That's good for healing wounds. I think."

She scraped away her tears with a non-blood covered fingernail, then lightly touched it to the edge of Phaser's stomach wound.

_Lightray__ "Mraaawrrlll, hkhhaahhhhhh." "__**I will fight and hurt any not-good humans too, if they try to hurt us.**__"_

The silver feline hissed, grimacing at the pain of any contact. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Shard whispered guiltily. Her voice kept breaking, and breathing in was growing difficult.

Unable to think of anything else, she gasped in a ragged breath to keep her shivering under control, and bent her head to Phaser's side, teeth clenched and throat aching.

Her tear-stained eyelids pressed lightly into the torn, blood-seeping flesh below Phaser's side, shockingly warm. Almost burning.

Warm tears mixed and blurred with warm blood, making Shard's eyes sting.

A warm, rough cat-tongue licked her left cheek, right near the long eye-scar. Shard dragged in another breath of air, pulling her head away for a moment to see Phaser tilting his head up and looking at her.

His emerald eyes were bright with pain, struggling to stay open and focused instead of tightly shut. He breathed out a hoarse 'mrrewprrr', a sound he sometimes used to show affection, though the pain and the blood gurgling slowly out his mouth made it sound awful.

Shard gasped out a sudden breath in a sob, then another and another, trying hard to breathe normally but failing. He had to be ok, he _had_ to...!

Shard had seen him get hurt before, or seen the effects of it, like when he protected Lightray from Alcatraz, or fought over food sometimes with a dog or another cat. Or even when his food- rats sometimes- bit back.

He'd come away with claw-marks and bite-marks, some that left scars. They hadn't been serious wounds, but Shard had still been insanely worried about him, like a mother hen about her fragile little babies.

And she'd worried endlessly when he'd gotten a cold, watching over him every second she could until she got twitchy and cramped from sitting so long. But those injuries and small bouts of illness had been only painful or irritating, nothing serious!

Obviously Shard knew that her friend wouldn't live forever. She had dimly imagined that when Phaser eventually died, it would be of old age, in his sleep. A gentle, painless goodbye after many long cat-years of life. Safe. Content. His kittens grown and Lightray by his side.

That much was true, at least. Phaser's life-long mate crouched beside him, crooning comfortingly and nuzzling his head.

_Shard__: "I agree. I don't want them to hurt any of us, ok? So I'm gonna go hide upstairs, if I have to, and you and Lightray and the kittens stay hidden. Ok?"_

Shard wished she could go back to the day when she'd brought Phaser home from the kill-shelter, having taken him away moments before he was scheduled to be put down. He'd been dispirited and apathetic then, as if he'd given up on life anyway.

Then, when Shard took him inside her house, where her parents and sister lived with her, Phaser had brightened instantly, sniffing the air eagerly and tearing at the interior of the pet-carrier that he was in.

The girl had let him out as Lightray came into the room unsteadily, still unused to having only three legs since her front left one had been amputated. The two felines had let out the happiest, most thrilled, jubilant sounds that Shard had ever heard, and raced toward one another.

They'd both been in their late teens or early twenties in cat-years, but had acted so much like reunited lovers that Shard was certain that had been what had happened.

Lightray had been smothering Phaser with licking and nuzzling, and he'd done the same, especially to her half-removed leg, as if he could heal it by sheer affection. He'd also sort of leaned down towards Lightray, as if apologizing letting her have been injured.

Lightray had obviously forgiven him, pushing him up and nuzzling his face some more. And then they'd had what Shard was convinced was an exchange of stories, which involved a lot of meowing excitedly to one another, paw and tail gestures, and running around the house as if they'd had catnip.

Shard wished suddenly that she had a time machine, so she could go back to living in that time. And she could stop Phaser from getting hurt, to stop that loathsome human from ever following her and finding Phaser or his family.

It was _her_ fault, Shard realized! If she hadn't stayed so long talking here with Phaser, if she hadn't decided to hide in her apartment home, if she hadn't asked the 'Cons to let her go to the town to get food on that exact day...

'I should've made Phaser stay at my family's house way back when I ran away!' the girl thought to herself with a moan, 'His life would've been easier there, safer, but he wanted to come with me! And now this is all my fault!'

"I'm sorry," Shard moaned, whole body shuddering with sobs as she pressed her face into his fur again, "I'm sorry, Phaser, I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry..."

The silver feline weakly raised one limp paw, dabbing at a thick strand of Shard's drooping hair near her face.

_Phaser__: "Mreeaaaawrrrr! Mr-row," "__**Hey don't go, you just came back! I'm staying with you.**__"_

Shard held his paw lightly in her fingers as it slid down. It was so soft, so delicate and fragile-seeming. She wanted to go back to when it was strong and lightning-fast, claws outstretched as she played happily with Phaser.

Once, one of his claws had gotten stuck in a knot of her hair, and it'd taken almost a minute for Shard to get her scissors and snip off the stringy tangle of hair. That's how Phaser had gotten one of the claws on his right front foot jammed to one side.

He'd howled and smacked her head the entire time while she had been trying to free his claw, and Shard had thought that it would've looked funnier if it hadn't been so painful. That feline was s_trong_!

He'd avoided her and hissed for the rest of the day, glaring with narrowed eyes as he pulled scraps of hair from his claws. And he and Lightray had refused to sleep by her that night with some of the other animals.

But the night afterwards, Phaser'd slept on top of her head, as if to prove some sort of point and say that he wasn't scared of her or going to hold a grudge.

Or maybe it had been to aggravate her allergies.

Shard let out a tiny, delirious chuckle as she remembered it, staring off into space. Then she squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her jaw, shaking her head angrily.

She didn't have _time_ to go reminiscing!

..._Phaser_ didn't have time.

His breathing was getting faster, though shallower and ragged. Blood trickled out from his stomach and out of his mouth faster, though thinner, and Shard could feel his heart racing.

But so faint. His sides rose so quickly, but so very slightly, as though breathing hurt. It probably did.

_Shard__: "I have to leave, I'm sorry. I will come back when I can, Ok? I promise. I will come back."_

_Phaser__: sighs in a cat-pout, ears turning down and back slightly. "Mrewp," __**"*sighs* Phooey. Ok, fine, but I don't wanna let you leave."**_

The torn flesh of the gaping stomach wound was almost burning to the touch, blood drying in little specks on his light, silvery fur.

Phaser's brilliant, deep emerald eyes were dulled, cloudy, like a mirror or large jewel covered in thick dust.

It was obviously an extreme effort to keep them open. Every time Phaser's eyes drifted closed, he struggled to force them open again, gazing at Lightray, the kittens, and Shard.

And something else. Lightray hissed a warning as thick fur brushed Shard's arm, and she glanced up to see Caterwaul standing next to her, gold eyes solemnly observing Phaser.

"Caterwaul," Shard rasped, voice hoarse and broken. Phaser's ear twitched slightly. Lightray relaxed slightly from her tense, protective stance.

The Decepticon leaned down on her front paws and bowed her head to Phaser, eyes closed respectfully and ears down.

Phaser let out a tiny noise, a sound of acknowledgement and thanks.

Then Phaser took a deeper breath, and, with a tremendous effort, he rolled his head back to gaze at Lightray and their children.

_Lightray__: "Mrraaaawrraaawr, hkhaaaahh," "__**Oh no you don't. You are NOT leaving to be in danger again, it's bad for you to leave so long! We're staying with you even if you say no, so deal with it.**__"_

Phaser licked Lightray's face, the way a husband would kiss his wife goodbye, and Lightray licked him back.

Phaser smiled, and sighed.


	21. Chapter 21

**Hello! I can understand that you're probably... unhappy, to say the least, about what happened to Phaser. I'm **_**really**_** sorry; I needed to give Shard a personal reason to hate the evil M.E.C.H. humans. ...Again, I'm sorry. (My sister's still miffed at me from when I first wrote the rough draft!) Oh, an' I been watching "Wolverine and the X-Men," and that military-ish dude, one of the 'M.R.D.s,' with short white hair, e' looks like the evil M.E.C.H. leader! But younger. So maybe he failed at that job and decided to be a scumbag to TFs instead of mutants! Hahaha, you faaaaaiiiil, evil one, you ffaaaaaiiiilllll!**

**Also, I've found that some people have reviewed my first 'Caterwaul' Fanfic! So, I'm going to answer their reviews first, ok?**

**To ****Abyss Prime****: Yay, thank you! (Sorry I haven't responded to this earlier.)**

**To ****Solarflare101****: Really? *grins* COOL! I love writing insanely! Thanks, hahaha. Thank you again! Wow, you really enjoy laughing evilly, eh? Heh heh. Oh and thank you fer' reviewing!**

**To ****Tina135790****: Oh, thank you so very much! Thank you muchly much, and thank you very much for reviewing!**

**To ****The-Charcoal-Alchemist****: I thank you for reading all the way through before stating your verdict. If the events were so predictable, why continue reading at all, if you've already figured out the entire plot? (While I understand that you are probably mentioning those chapters at random, I shall give my opinion on them anyway: I admit, chapter 6 was short, and boring, and for that I apologize. Chapter 39, I think I did much better on, and tried to incorporate a bit of humor and hint of romance in.) Oh? I had been under the impression that a Mary Sue was a cliché, wimpy female character who manages to be strong and blames herself for anything wrong- but of course I don't know all the terms used on Fanfiction. I'd say that Caterwaul lost quite a bit when she nearly died- and if I made her lose many times, the story would get rather depressing, would it not? Admittedly, I did obsess about torturing Screamer, and I'm sorry if that lowered my story in your eyes. *clenches teeth* I, apologize, if I did not write the characters accurately- I didn't watch the show very much when I wrote those chapters, and do not know how to write very many personalities, though I know that that's no excuse. ...A '**_**troll-fic'**_**? Fanfictions are not required to be unbiased towards characters, such as Starscream, who I would say made himself quite the target when he murdered Cliffjumper. Yes, perhaps shame can be a good teacher, if deserved. I will make no changes to my first 'Caterwaul' Fanfic; this way readers and I can see how my writing was earlier, and how it has hopefully progressed. Thank you for reviewing.**

***growls*** **Respectful** a**dvice and constructive** **criticism are both acceptable and highly appreciated, especially when needed. Insults however, are neither. ...Now. On to some more polite reviews. **

**To ****Lydiathetigeropean****: *winces* Sorrysorrysorry! Heeheehee, yeeeesssss, I'd like to watch that too! And then Godzilla could eat them! *grins evilly* Ooohhhh, and I'm sure Caterwaul could loan some tomato sauce to make the taste better... Or we could sell the paste to art-schools! Kids might wonder about the smell though...**

**To ****zrexheartz****: *starts moaning and whimpering* Mmmrrmpff. Sorrryyy! Muchly muchly sorries indeed, sorries all ovah da place!**

**To ****Abyss Prime****: YEEP! FireFlare, help! ****FireFlare****: I told you not to kill off Phaser! But did you listen? NO! NO YOU DID NOT. I'll give you a frying pan but THAT'S IT. ****CrazyCatGirl****: Thank you! Thank you for this kitchen implement of defense, oh merciful sister! ...AND I'M SORRY!**

**To ****AutobotSoShi****: Aagh, sorrysorrysor- wait wha'? Izzeh, yoo, eh-heh, um... Wha'? I meant to make it sad, and I'd hoped it'd be emotional enough to make people cry, but... You liked it? I am stunned. Thank you.**

**Eh, ok now. Umm, on to the chapter.**

**...AND I'M SORRRRYYYYYY!**

Choking on her sobs, Shard touched her head to Phaser's, one last time. Then she reached out one hand, and, as gently as she could, placed her fingers on Phaser's eyelids, and closed them.

Lightray keened, throwing her head back and howling her grief, eyes squeezed shut. The kittens mewled in worry. They still didn't understand.

'Why is Dad not breathing? Only rats stop breathing, and then Mom and Dad and we eat them. Why is Daddy not breathing?'

Shard sniffled, pulling in a shuddering gasp. A warm tear trickled down her right cheek, cooling and stopping. She automatically brushed it away with one hand. One bloody hand.

The girl blearily moved her eyes to look at the blood-covered palm. Blood was dried thick under her fingernails and in the creases. Some of the liquid was still wet, seeping down along her tilted wrist.

'I... look... like I... killed someone...' she thought, then suddenly convulsed and hunched over, quaking, teeth and wet fists clenched.

"Phaser," she croaked aloud, adding silently, agonized, 'I killed Phaser. I let people come here and I let him get... hurt... k-illed.'

Phaser's body was heavy on the girl's lap. Heavy and torturously limp. Even in his sleep, Shard had rarely seen Phaser being completely limp. He would curl up near Shard or Lightray or the kittens, his tail under his muzzle and one of his front paws.

Shard blinked her dull eyes. She placed both hands on the bed-cloth that she'd tried to use to stop to bleeding. She dragged her hands away, leaving rough handprints of drying blood on the crumpled fabric.

Then she pulled away a clean corner of it and dragged her hands across it, over and over, harder, until she could feel rocks through the fabric and her palms burned.

Shard scraped her hands across the fabric more, and then tiredly looked at them. They were pinkish, with traces of dried dark red in the nails and where the fingers joined the palms, still wet and sticky.

She scrubbed the red away from her joints until they burned too, then looked back at the shape on her lap.

Light grey fur dark in the shadows, scarred ears sticking out and partially see-through, delicate limbs and paws laying still and outstretched, closed eyelids, thin tail limp on the floor, head on its left side and limp, all warm and heavy and dead.

Shard winced again, flinching her head away with eyes closed and a faint gasp.

Silvery fur, sleek and clean like a blade. Delicate, sensitive ears of rounded triangles and wisps of fur, pricked alertly. Strong, elegant legs of fluid muscle, tipped with thick pink pads and lightning-fast claws. Brilliant emerald eyes the colors of deep forests and thick healthy grass. Lashing tail flicking from side to side for kittens to chase.

Loyalty and determination, bravery and curiosity, love and joy. Ecstatic to see Lightray. Curious about the house. Wary of nearly all humans. Protective of his family. Gentle to his kittens. Unwavering toward enemies.

Gone. In a couple short minutes, all of the years of Phaser's life had ended.

Phaser no longer existed, so Shard would have to keep everything about him in her memory, her mind.

He slept on her head when he was miffed at her. He licked her scarred eye when he was very happy or thanking her. He liked to steal bits of cheese off her pizza slices.

He liked to race with her. He liked to jump at a dog's face when they were asleep, then climb out of reach and look at Shard as if to say "What? I didn't do anything." He didn't like slimy foods.

He enjoyed sneaking out at night and coming back with a freshly gutted rat for Lightray. He didn't like windy days when dust got stuck in his fur. He couldn't fathom why in the world of sanity it was that Shard kept trying to tickle his paws.

He loved gently tussling with his kittens, and roughly with Shard's hand. He liked it when Lightray groomed his fur or Shard stroked the top of his head. He persisted in trying to kill raindrops during infrequent storms and then smacking the ground when he couldn't.

He was Phaser, and he would keep living in Shard's memories. Now she just had to say goodbye.

The girl carefully, reverently, lay Phaser on the blanket that was smeared with his blood. The lethal gash had stopped bleeding by now. Shard wiped away the blood from his mouth and stomach. Some of it was dried onto his fur.

Shard tucked more of the blanket underneath and around Phaser, like a nest, and tentatively shifted him so that he looked as if he were napping. Curled up, one of his front paws draped over his tail, which was tucked under his head like a tiny pillow.

The four kittens waddled over, maybe thinking that they were going to snuggle with their dad. They used to do that when they were tinier and Lightray needed to stretch her legs and hunt.

Shard had a quick image flash through her head, of the kittens being buried with Phaser, and she recoiled with a faint hiss.

"No," she rasped, then coughed and repeated it a little stronger, "No." She nudged away the kittens, who thought that it was the We-Try-To-Get-To-Something-And-You-Pretend-To-Try- To-Stop-Us Game.

Shard _wished_ it was as happy and normal as a game. "_No_," she moaned to the little ones, who looked up and nibbled her fingers. An abrupt laugh burst out of her throat, then vanished in a crumpled expression of grief.

No happy now. Just sad. Must bury-... bury... Phaser...

Shard used to bury the skeletal remains of dead prey animals the cats and dogs ate, scraping away the hard ground with her jagged blade and pushing the dirt back over, then placing a couple rocks around the spot.

One side of the apartment looked like an odd rock garden. Some plants grew there.

Phaser liked to smell plants and flowers, and sometimes bat at them with his paws if the stems were springy.

There had been a few stray plants growing near the back of the building, just sparse little tufts of grass, and Shard had made it a hobby to water them. Eventually, after adding bits of old food as fertilizer, more plants had grown there, even flowers.

Phaser liked it there.

Shard let out a long, slow sigh, gently pushing the kittens away one more time with both hands, then folding the blanket over and around Phaser.

She'd done that sometimes while he was asleep, but always left his head uncovered so he could breathe. Not now.

This distressed the kittens, who mewled in alarm and started pulling at the fabric. 'Daddy's stuck!' 'Let's get him out!' 'Maybe he's hiding!' 'We found you, Daddy! Come out!'

Shard let out a faintly protesting "mneh" noise, stretching out her hand again. Then she stopped, glancing in the direction of the plant/flower-place. Ok.

She uncovered Phaser's head so the kittens could look, and try, and realize, and understand, and say goodbye. Bye...

Shard had a work- a job to do. She had to job, no, work. Phaser usually followed her when she was working. Helping flowers, making- no, scavenging- foods- no, food, and... and... She couldn't think of anything else just then.

No matter. Had a job. Have to dig a good- an honorable grave. For Phaser. Blurry thoughts. Just focus.

Shard unsteadily staggered away, grimacing at the pain as her stiff legs and knees unbent. Wait... where to go? Which direction? Door... still evil bad humans fighting. Caterwaul was assisting another 'Con there.

Window. Shard moaned to herself as she stumbled toward it and slowly climbed through. That stupid window. If only she hadn't gone through it the first time, trying to hide.

Shard glanced at the flower patch, imagining it as a grave. Imagined covering Phaser's body in heaps of thick, heavy dirt and rock. Imagined if Phaser was somehow still alive... while she buried him!

The image made her choke and convulse in horror. Oh, goodness, please no, Phaser-!

Shard whimpered for a split second, felt her throat burning, lurched away back toward the building wall, bent over. "Ullp, gh-..."

No food in her stomach, which ached. Ow. The acidic taste scalded her throat, like salt on a wound. Oww.

Shard coughed weakly, throat stinging again, then blearily looked back at the grave-to-be. She cringed slightly, then her expression dropped. Phaser was dead. She was burying him.

The girl crouched by the patch of flowers. Oh. They were starting to dry out. She climbed back through the window and picked up a water bottle from her pile of food-things.

She winced when she saw the kittens getting more and more panicked as they tried to wake up Phaser.

Shard went back to the patch of flowers, pouring the water on the ground among them. She waited for the ground to soften, even a little, and then stated to dig.

A rough oval layer of dirt, sand, and plant roots was kept intact, and she moved it out of the way so the plants wouldn't be harmed. Phaser liked them.

Shard figured that the 'Cons had been fighting away the evil humans for a while, so she should hurry. She didn't want to hurry, she wanted to go slowly.

But she hurried, as much as she could. Wouldn't want to annoy her rescuers. Ha ha. Was that funny? She couldn't tell, and then forgot.

Shard jabbed her blade into the ground, twisted, and dropped a dusty clump of dirt/sand to the side. Digging. She wasn't sure how much later, but eventually there was a big gaping hole in the ground, like a hard, ragged wound. She grimaced.

Shard stood back up, gritting her teeth as her once-again-stiff legs straightened out, and she stretched her bent-over spine, which made snapping noises. Felt good. Had to help- no, had to bury Phaser.

She crawled through the window again, and now Lightray and the kittens were resting in a heap around Phaser. Shard petted their fur, and then folded up the blanket around Phaser one more time, picking it up.

The felines followed her, and she helped them through the window. The girl was starting to hate that stupid window. Too much crawling through. Through it.

Shard gently settled Phaser's body, wrapped in the blanket, in the grave, which was as deep as she could manage in the hard-packed earth.

She had arranged rocks at the bottom, and put more around the lumpy blanket form. Then more on top. It had taken a while to find enough rocks. One of the kittens tried to crawl in after her dad, but Lightray pulled the little one away.

Shard nodded her thanks. She picked up a big handful of sand and dirt, then crumbled it in her hand and let it sift through her fingers into the grave. Then another handful and another. When all of the piled-up dirt was used up, Shard scraped away more surface-earth, and scattered that on top.

The grave was almost at the same level as the rest of the ground now, and Shard carefully pulled over the ragged mat of dirt and plants, whose roots held it together. She placed it on top of Phaser's grave, patting the ground down again with her hands.

Bye, Phaser.

"Shard!" called a voice, and she looked up tiredly. Caterwaul.

"Hey," Shard stated quietly, thinking that maybe she should smile in greeting, but she couldn't make her mouth lift in the expression.

"I'm sorry," Caterwaul told her, "Your friend, the silver cat, was very brave."

The muscles around Shard's eyes tightened, and she looked down. It was very kind of Caterwaul, but... Phaser was gone now, and what could change that?

"I'm sorry, Shard," Caterwaul continued gently, "But we have to leave now."

Shard blinked blankly, "Oh. ...Ok. Wait, I have something... I have to do something." Phaser's children needed their names.

"Zerr," she named the brown male kitten with gray patches and greenish blue eyes, who was clever like Phaser.

"Emerald," she named the playful, mottled pale brown female kitten whose eyes were nearly the exact same color as Phaser's.

"Silver," she named the brave amber-eyed male kitten whose rippled white fur was marked with the same silver as Phaser's.

"Phey," she named the grey female kitten with patches of brown stripes and blue eyes, who was curious like Phaser.

Shard stood up, legs aching in pain again. She looked at the four young cats and their mother, who would have to survive without Phaser's help or support. They were strong, Shard knew they could make it.

"Bye, everyone," she told them, "Be safe."

She sighed and turned to leave with Caterwaul, "Bye, Phaser."

Phey, Zerr, the one with Silver fur and the one with Emerald eyes, answered.


	22. Chapter 22

**Hello! Again, I, Am. SO-RRY! For making people sad. I felt I had to give Shard a really personal reason to hate the evil M.E.C.H. people, and, now that I think about it, to kind of show that she isn't all, 'Life is fun, I'm crazy, jokes and weirdness, etc.' So anyway, here we go with the reviews, which I thank you all for giving me!**

**To ****AutobotSoShi****: Ah, thank you very much. And thank you very muchly much again, I really appreciate it.**

**To ****Abyss Prime****: I know, sorry. What?! AA! FireFlare, help me! (Ooh wait. What kinds of weapons? Are they epic?)**

**To ****zrexheartz****: Um, izzat a sad "Awwwww" or a I-see-cute-kittens "Awwwww"? No wait, probably sad, yes? Sorry again fer' the sadness.**

**To ****Guest****: Heh heh heh, yeeessss, down with them. Cool! My parents have the movie, and I've seen some of it. The Jabberwocky looks cool. Thank you for reviewing!**

**To ****Guest****: Hello! (Are you the same "Guest" reviewer-person who mentioned the "Alice in Wonderland" movie?) Yes, sad, and I be muchly sorry. Thank you very very much. And thank you for reviewing!**

**To ****Exodus2150****: Yeah, again, sorry for the sadness. Hm, no curse-words here, please. I'm one of Jehovah's Witnesses and I don't like any cursing. But yes, I grin at the suffering you inflict upon the eeeevil M.E.C.H. leader! Ooh, pointy torture equipment? I like pointy stuff. Thank you for reviewing!**

**To ****lydiathetigeropean****: Thank you very much. Really? I was hoping the chapter would be moving for people, but now I feel bad. Yes, but the cats will survive and be ok.**

**To ****Iceshadow911247****: Mmhmm, yes? Ah. I would have to agree that the person was being rude, but I try to be polite when reviewing. (Even if the rude reviewer-person annoys me!) Thank you very much for your support. I agree; If I don't like a Fanfiction, I stop reading it. *cringes* Aaagh! I'm soorrrrryyyyyy! Now I feel even more guilty! Aaa!**

**Well, okeedokey then. Now for the chapter!**

Shard walked slowly behind Caterwaul, trailing along quietly. If Phaser were still alive, Shard mused, he would've been right at her heels, eager to go anywhere she was going, as long as he knew his family was safe.

It would've been bad if he'd come with her onto the ship. The 'Cons might not have allowed it. He could get/ have gotten hurt- _as if that made a difference now!_

So maybe it was good that he- _NO! It was HORRIBLE that he was dead, not good in any way at all!_ What was she thinking?! Shard wanted Phaser back, safe and healthy and alive.

Maybe it would be or would have been ok if he'd come onto the ship with her. But maybe not. Maybe if he'd come... No, he'd needed to stay behind, keep his babies safe.

'I'll come back as often as I can,' Shard thought distantly, 'And I'll kill rats fer' Lightray, and the kittens... I hate/ hated killing rats at first. Still do. They're like mice... Little and furry... They/ The rats were limp when they were dead... like Phaser...' She winced.

Shard missed him so much/ so badly. She couldn't keep her thoughts straight/ focused. Now she was remembering the first time she helped kill a rat...

It'd been roughly a week after she left home.

Phaser'd chased it. Shard'd been staying still, crouched nearby, unbelievably hungry, thinking that it'd be so much easier if she was a cat and could catch fresh food.

Then, she had. The rodent had dashed away from Phaser and past Shard. She'd impulsively stabbed the rat with her blade. Phaser'd darted over and stopped the creature's blood-spurting writhing. Then he'd held it out to her in his mouth.

Shard had felt both grateful to Phaser, and depressed that she'd contributed to the little animal's death. But at least Phaser and Lightray would have fresh meat.

Looking back now, Shard would have willingly half-starved herself to go back to that day. And Phaser would be alive.

Shard sighed quietly, then heard Caterwaul gasp in surprise. The girl glanced up, and her eyes widened. Knockout!

The 'Con was twitching and sliding to the ground, electricity flickering around his armor. Caterwaul hissed, racing towards him with Shard right behind her.

Caterwaul leaped up onto the scarlet medic's shoulder as he collapsed. The feline's dappled, silver-tinted fur bristled as she bit down on a small device on Knockout's shoulder, and she wrenched a chunk out of the strange object.

She tossed the mangled chunk of metal and wires onto the ground, and it tumbled to a stop near Shard. The girl simply looked at it for a second, and then stomped on it, hard. ...Whhiiiich proved to be a mistake, since she was barefoot.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, agh," she hissed/ muttered to herself, clutching her foot and balancing on the other, "Ow ow ow, stupid of me, stupid, stupid, foolish!"

Caterwaul ripped off the rest of the device, hurling the shredded chunk of scrap onto the ground. Shard glowered at the mangled object, then stabbed it with her blade. Ahh, much better.

Then she yelped/gasped in shock as something loud blasted from behind her, and bursts of light and noise spattered the ground near Knockout, who was still... well, knocked out.

Shard whipped around, holding her ears, which still echoed with firework-explosions. Behind her were some of the creepy/bad people, holding guns and firing at Caterwaul and Knockout, who seemed to be waking up a bit.

Interestingly, her first inclination was to angrily yell at the peeeeopllle, "You idiots! Knockout's gonna KILL you fer' wrecking his paintjob!" Seeing as she had no reason _not_ to yell it, she did.

The girl blinked, thinking for a second. She'd imagined them being dead. Decapitated, squished, maybe burnt, or their necks or spines broken. Should that make her happy? People- even bad ones- being dead? It didn't.

Then something moved. Like the cats she loved so much, Shard noticed movement a lot. Like ants walking in squiggle shapes through the dirt, or a small bird flitting onto a branch.

This wasn't such a benign moving-thing though. An injured bad-person was dragging himself toward a gun on the ground. A big, dangerous gun.

"URRRGH!" Shard growled/ yelled, dodging around a sprawled bad-person that Caterwaul'd defeated, and sprinted toward the weapon, past the struggling bad-person.

The girl skidded to a stop, her bare feet burning slightly, and snatched up the heavy gun. _Wow_ this thing was heavy! She clenched her fingers, pulled, and swung as hard as she could, smashing the weapon against the corner of a building.

The bad-person who'd been dragging himself forward stopped, staring at her. (Or at least Shard assumed he was staring- the whole full-face-mask-and-goggles-thing wasn't good for letting expressions show.)

The girl growled low in her throat, glaring at the person and baring her teeth slightly, then slammed the gun into the building-corner again. She hit it again, closing her eyes as bits of brick or concrete shattered, flying in her face.

She vaguely thought/ realized that she probably looked horrible. Phaser's blood had mixed with her tears and dried on her face, her stringy brown hair was streaked with old dried blood and flopping everywhere, her many scars stood out against her pale skin, her long-worn clothes were dirty and blood-stained, her blade on her necklace glinted.

She growled again, eyes still closed, and hit the building-corner again. Then something grabbed her right shoulder, a heavy gloved hand, fingers brushing the side of her neck.

Bad. She _hated_ being touched anywhere (especially near her neck or face), she hadn't had _any_ food, she was _really_ mad, evil humans had _hurt_ her friends, and _Phaser was DEAD!_

It was like cracking a glow-stick or stepping in a bear-trap. Instant. Hate. **Kill**. _Snap_.

A primal shriek leapt from Shard's throat as she snapped her eyes open in frenzied rage, teeth bared and clenched, her face a distorted and maddened grimace, insane. She slammed the long, heavy weapon into the person like a baseball bat, then let go and slashed at the person with her nails, raking and clawing.

The random bad-person's hand let go and Shard stumbled away, but... More people! People! I'll kill you! Catching! Help! Pulling! Can't get away! Aaa!

Shard lashed out and struggled, kicking and swiping, shrieking in fury and terror. The bad people were taking her away! No!

They pushed her to her knees, near the back of another abandoned building. Shard panted and growled, still writhing and squirming to get away, but people held her arms tight. Can't get away, can't scratch or kick, solution= BITE!

She twisted her head around as fast as she could, frantically, neck hurting, sending her hair flying everywhere as she snapped at the gloved hands on her shoulders. They retreated to her upper arms, and her teeth couldn't reach, so Shard whacked her head against the people's arms, still roaring/ screaming.

As she gasped in air, Shard felt a frightened, desperate whimper rising in her throat. Her adrenaline surge of insane viciousness wouldn't last much longer. When it faded, she would be exhausted, weak, maybe crying again. WEAK!

"Well," stated a horrific, slightly amused voice, "What do we have here?" If Shard hadn't been so terrified and enraged, she might have laughed at how cliché the line was. But she'd learned this voice quickly- the one who killed Phaser!

Shard whipped her head up, expression completely mad. Not just angry-mad, but _insane_-mad, I'm-going-to-tear-out-your-innards-and-strangle-yo u-with-them-and-rip-out-your-bones-and-stab-you-wi th-them-as-you-drown-in-your-own-spurting-blood-ma d. Insane.

You've heard of glaring daggers at someone? Shard was glaring white-hot, serrated and double-edged swords covered in corrosive acid and lethal poison.

Problem was, she hated looking at people very long, even to glare at them. But if she looked away it'd seem weak, afraid. She _was_ afraid though, afraid of these horrible people taking her away, and she couldn't do anything to stop them! She needed help!

Shard squeezed her eyes shut, whipping her head around everywhere, screaming as loud and high-pitched as she could, "CATERWAAUL! CATERWAAAUL! HEEELLP!"

"Silence!" ordered the evil- person. One of the bad-people kicked her right side, and she tried to bite his leg as she half-fell over on her left. She missed, but she was no longer sitting on her right leg, so she pulled it out from under her and kicked at the bad-human.

While Shard was distracted, the evil-leader-human grabbed her hair and yanked forward, pulling the girl's head around to face him. Shard hissed, still crazed and infuriated, and snapped at his hands, her teeth snapping shut with a hard 'clack' almost every second.

"What's 'caterwaul'?" the evil-leader-human demanded, and Shard growled, trying to pull her head away. An idea popped up in her mind.

The girl fought and twisted for a few more seconds, then went mostly limp, panting. She gasped out, "I'm... not... s'posed to... tell you!"

"Tell me!" the loathsome evil-human ordered, yanking Shard's hair back and forth. It hurt, but Shard thought it was just kind of childish.

(**The evil people don't know Caterwaul's name 'cause they've never heard it before, in case yer' wondering.**)

"I..." she panted, feigning surrender, "I'm not supposed... to tell you... that it's a... code word... for hidden bombs... on your vehicles... to blow up..."

Shard tried not to smirk as several of the soldier-y bad-people edged quickly away from their vehicles. Unfortunately, most didn't seem to believe her, including the evil-leader-human. She had no second plan for when they called her bluff...

Thankfully, just then, an actually explosion blew apart part of the nearest truck-vehicle, and many of the bad-people leaped away. Shard looked around and gasped in relief to see Caterwaul and Knockout running towards her, the scarlet medic aiming his blaster for another explosive shot.

Caterwaul barreled into the humans who were restraining Shard, and the girl flung herself away as they let go. She scrambled away on the ground, not caring about getting her knees, hands, and feet scraped by rocks.

She nearly screamed again when something big moved towards her, but then she sighed with relief to see that it was Knockout's hand. He picked her up and she hugged his pointy fingers as he blasted away at the retreating bad-humans.

Once they were gone, the Decepticon placed Shard back on the ground, where she went limp almost instantly, exhausted.

Caterwaul approached, and Shard forced herself to sit up. "Thank you," she breathed, "Thank you both, so much. You saved me. Thank you."

Knockout grinned and Caterwaul nodded, inquiring of the girl, "Are you ok?"

Shard blinked down at her multitude of scratches, shallow scrapes, and small bruises forming. "Yeah," she told Caterwaul, "I'm ok. Can we all go home now?"


	23. Chapter 23

**Hello! I started typing this chapter right after I updated chapter 22, but then started typing something else and haven't typed any of it here since! Reason why? Evil homework!**

**To ****lydiathetigeropean****: Oh, goodie! I'm really glad you liked the car-explosions. Personally, I love seeing almost ANY explosions (on TV, or from a safe distance.)!**

**To ****Iceshadow911247****: AAWWWW, thankyouthankyouthankyou soooo muchly muchly much! Heh heh heh, yeeessss, Shard does kind of lose it. A lot. (She and I both want to know if a human can break another human's nose by biting down on the bridge of it, really really hard. We're crazy. *smiles*) Ok, don't worry; Shard wouldn't be nasty to you; you're way too nice and give wonderfully kind reviews!**

**To ****AutobotSoShi****: Ehhhh, unfortunately not, just some of their vehicles and possibly some large quantities of their skin is blown up. Izzat good enough? But, anyway, thank you very much!**

**To ****zrexheartz****: Yay! Shard thanks you very much for your encouragement! And I thank you for the encouragement too!**

"Yes," Caterwaul assured Shard, slightly surprised that the girl had referred to the ship as 'home,' "Yes, we're going home now."

"Ok," Shard breathed, her head drooping. She didn't even look up as Knockout spoke. "Aren't you forgetting something? You came here to get sustenance for yourself, didn't you?"

Shard blinked, expression blank, "Oh. Yeah. I'll go get that..."

She slowly stood up, limbs floppy and awkward. The girl stumbled back to her apartment-home. She frowned at the door, remembering how the evil-human had come in. It felt so long ago, as if it had happened yesterday, instead of barely an hour ago.

Shard narrowed her eyes sadly as they adjusted back to the deeper darkness and she saw blood still smearing the floor. Phaser's blood. All that she'd ever see again...

No, maybe not. Shard thought about it as she gathered her scattered supplies of water-bottles and food. Some of it had gone bad; she would leave that out to attract rats.

Then Lightray and Pha-... no, just Lightray, would be able to catch the rats. The girl wondered if the kittens would be getting taught how to hunt soon.

They'd make a formidable little pack, Shard thought fondly.

Shard put the non-spoiled food items into her backpack, which she'd brought with her when she left home. She'd figured that she'd have to scavenge, and knew a backpack would be good for carrying stuff.

She'd also brought some big Ziploc bags, to keep food clean. Well, cleaner. And when a bag's food was all gone, she'd lick it clean and refill it with new food.

The girl cleaned out an empty one, wiped the inside clean with her shirt, and knelt on the floor. Ah, yes. Tufts of silvery fur still wafted across the ground with a breeze.

Shard collected as many of the wispy clumps as she could, and put them inside the clean plastic bag. Whenever that cats shed, she used to brush their fur out with her fingers, and sweep the bunches of loose fur away like dust.

Now she treasured them. Little silver hairs, reminders of Phaser. Shard zipped closed the bag, tucked it into her backpack, and walked away. Time to go to her other home, the one with the Decepticons. This place belonged to the animals now.

Outside, she looked up at the evening sky. She usually only came outside in really late evening or really, really early morning to scrounge for food, so nobody would see her.

Sometimes Phaser came with her. Once or... yeah, twice, Shard thought, she had tried to put a makeshift little harness on him so he could carry some of the smaller stuff. Phaser had been curious about it and wriggled around to sniff at it so much that it fell off both times.

Then, as Shard recalled, he'd picked it up in his mouth and dangled it around for Lightray to inspect and for the kittens to play with.

She smiled quietly, then climbed into the waiting alt-mode of Knockout, who was eager to get home and have his armor cleaned off. Shard thought about maybe trying to help. She wanted to thank him and Caterwaul for saving her from some horrible, unknown fate at the hand of the evil peeeoplle.

Speaking of which... "S'cuse me," Shard murmured timidly, "Um, what do those bad people do? I mean...what's their goal, what're they trying to do? Besides lurking around and attacking teenagers and-" -Phaser- "-...stuff."

The girl felt Knockout driving faster, engine-sounds deepening a bit. She noticed a snarl in Caterwaul's expression as the feline ran next to the scarlet Decepticon.

"They try to capture Cybertronians- Autobot and Decepticon alike," the Decepti-cat growled harshly, her claws deliberately gouging and ripping at the ground as she ran.

"Wh- Why?" Shard asked, slightly frightened.

"So they can dissect them to death," Caterwaul spat, disgust and hatred blazing in her voice, "So they can find out all they can about how we...- What's the human expression?- tick."

Shard's eyes widened in horror. "That's sickening! Oh my goodness... Did... one of you, Cybertronians, I mean, get... killed?"

"Nearly," Caterwaul stated with a slight hiss.

"Um..." Shard asked hesitantly, "Which one?" Caterwaul shook her head firmly, "If he wanted you to know, he would've told you. So I'm not going to."

"Oh. Ok," Shard replied, deciding to figure it out for herself. The answer, or at least best guess, came almost immediately. Breakdown.

He'd _hated_ having her near him to remove the magnets... She now figured it must be that he'd gotten that hatred- or at least extremely extreme dislike- of humans from being hurt by the evil creepy capture-y people.

She'd thought that he'd lost his eye- no, optic- in some really bad fight with another Cybertronian. Or maybe he'd been walking past Megatron and it got poked out by one of the bossy leader's pointy shoulder-thingies.

Shard stifled her smirk; while it was fun to make jokes at Megatwit's expense, this was a serious matter, and it'd be rude to make jokes about poor Breakdown.

Shard wondered if she could ask him about what'd happened. The thought was extremely/ very tempting, but she decided not to. Curious though the girl was, she certainly didn't want to intrude on his privacy.

"Hey, um, Caterwaul? Or Knockout, too," Sard asked, "what're the bad guys, those, the bad people, who're they? Part a' the government or something? S' bad enough already. Yeah?"

Caterwaul sneer-growled a response, "Those wretched humans call their gang "M.E.C.H.". Filth." Shard frowned, thinking, then asked, "Mech? Isn't... Ain't that like or sorta like the word fer' male Cybertronians?"

"It is. Those humans have even less intelligence than decency. So," Caterwaul snorted, then asked Shard, "What happened earlier? You were nearby while Knockout was recovering, then you ran off."

"I was fine," Knockout informed them haughtily, "That new human device was pathetic, not nearly powerful enough to keep anyone in full stasis."

"Yes, which is fortunate," Caterwaul chided teasingly, "I wouldn't want to have to drag you through the groundbridge. Now. I believe I was asking Shard what happened."

"Oh. Yeah," Shard murmured. It felt a bit longer ago than it really was/ had been. Her thoughts were still unfocused because of- Phaser dead. Gone. No, don't think about that... Shock? Was shock making her thinking blurry? What was she thinking about before?

"Um, sorry," Shard apologized wearily/tiredly, "Could you please repeat what you said? Sorry." Caterwaul looked at her in concern, worried sympathy offered in her expression, and told Shard what she'd said.

"Oh, thanks," the girl told her, "Um, I saw someone, one of those bad people in suits, injured, I think, an' he was trying to get to a gun. So I wanted t' stop him, and I ran at him. I think I yelled, or growled or something. Can't really remember."

"Uumm, what was it... Uh, then I think, the people, the bad people, they all, or most at least, went all around an' they... they dragged me away and I was kicking and scratching at them. The biting didn't really work, couldn't reach so good..." Ooh, still blurry thoughts.

"And um... Then, I think... the uh, that-" –Shard flinched, closing her eyes and clenching her teeth for a split second- "-That bad, leader, guy, person-thing. He wanted to know something... I think? Gahhh, I forget, I'm sorry, it's all, so, kinda, fuzzy in my head."

She sighed, "So, um, then anyway, I yelled yer' name, Caterwaul, and when he- the bad horrible guy- asked, well no, really demanded about it, I said 'I'm not s'posed to tell you it's a codeword for bombs in yer vehicle-thingies to blow up.' Haha..."

"Really?!" Caterwaulasked, ecstatic, sounding positively thrilled, "When are the explosives going to go off?"

Shard chuckled a bit, "No, sadly no, there wasn't... weren't... the many explosions. I'd said 'I'm not supposed to _tell you_ there are bombs.' I never said 'There really are actual bombs.'"

"Oh," Caterwaul stated, humorously pouting in disappointment. "Well," Knockout suggested, sounding interested, "I could most likely find some explosive chemicals on the _Nemesis_, and you can bring those with you next time."

Shard chuckled quietly, wondered if he'd heard it, guessed that'd he'd expected an evil and pleased laugh, and tried harder, chuckling deviously.

Shard continued her narration/ recollection, "And then you guys came and you saved me. Thank you. A lot. Thank you again, very very much. I'm gonna... I should do something really nice to thank you."

"You don't ha-" Caterwaul began, but Knockout was already musing aloud to Shard, "Well, I could always use a little helper to keep my finish polished and gleaming..."

"Knockoouut," Caterwaul playfully moaned, "Breakdown helps you with that already!"

"O'oohh... I'd still like t' help..." Shard mumbled, blinking tiredly.

"Erm, human, I was kidding," Knockout told her, slightly wary or uncertain. Maybe worried? Shard wasn't sure/ couldn't tell.

She nodded and leaned against the door, head lolling against the window. "Alright," Knockout told her, a bit more gently, "I'd say it's time to go back to the _Nemesis_."

"Mm," Shard murmured, nodding slightly, "The ship? Ok..."

The girl dimly heard Knockout requesting a groundbridge, then the whoosh-y/whooshing sound of it opening. She twitched and shivered a little bit as they went through, and she tried to use the slight shock to wake herself up. It worked... but only a little.

Knockout rolled to a halt, and Shard leaned away from the door as it opened, so she wouldn't fall out. Then she glanced out and stumbled through, trying not to fall over.

"I believe you claimed that this excursion would be _brief_," stated a raspy voice in scathing, sarcastic tones. Shard looked up to see Megatron looking down at her, a contemptuous smirk on his face. Ugly face.

"Sorry," she mumbled, looking at the ground to seem apologetic. Really, she didn't care about Meggytwit's opinion. 'Juss lemme alone,' the girl thought, and almost said it.

"Incredibly," Megatwit went on, "On the first occasion that I allow you to leave, you succeeded in not only running into M.E.C.H., but also in getting one of my soldiers injured."

'And Phaser _died_!' Shard thought with a fresh pang of agony, at the same time that she thought in response to Megatron, 'It wasn't my fault!' Then she remembered that it _was_ her fault.

Then she wondered... "How'd you... How'd you know the bad people? There, I mean."

"Surely even your diminutive human brain cannot have _that_ bad a memory," Megatron scoffed, "The tracking device on your wrist is equipped with a camera, as you have so obviously forgotten." Oh.

The gray-ish Decepticon gestured towards Soundwave, who displayed a video clip from what he must've recorded via Shards bracelet, when the girl had been first hiding from the bad peeeopllle.

Nearby, Shard glimpsed Caterwaul narrowing her optics reproachfully at Megatron, and the girl felt a ripple of gratitude for the bit of unspoken support.

As Megatron glanced turned back to sneer at Shard, the girl saw Soundwave switch the visor-picture to an image of Phaser, lying on Shard's lap as his life bled out.

It was like yanking a thin bandage off a recent wound- Shard's eyes widened as sadness and dismay flashed across her face. They had been able to see everything. They'd seen what happened to Phaser.

For some reason, this horrified her. Embarrassment that they'd seen her crying? Disgust that they'd seen Phaser die and probably didn't care? Anger that they'd been watching and she hadn't realized?

Soundwave switched the image back when Megatron looked over, and Shard turned away from the gray-ish 'Con, glaring at the floor, and managed to apologize again without sounding as if she were choking, "I'm. Sorry. Sssir."

Megatron scoffed again, and gestured at her to leave. Shard glanced dully away at the long corridors. Phaser was dead. At least two Decepticons had watched it on a screen. She was still hungry. Her scratches itched and stung. She still didn't know her way around completely, and she was sooo tired...

Still, the girl trudged away. "Hey, not so fast," a familiar voice chided, and Shard glanced back to see Knockout and Caterwaul right behind her, looking sympathetic and concerned. The medic scooped her up in one hand and walked towards Caterwaul's room, with the Decepti-cat herself following.

"Ohh," Shard murmured, eyes fluttering closed, "Thank you. Sorry. I was s'possed t' help you with yer' polish... er finish."

"That's not necessary," he assured her, "Besides, I highly doubt that a human would know how to do it correctly." Shard let out a breath of faint laughter; she wasn't sure whether to be comforted or mildly insulted.

"I'd prefer to have you recharge in the Medbay, you know," the medic confided jokingly to Shard as he placed her outside of Caterwaul's room, "But you might try to run off with some of my equipment and do some serious damage to our 'glorious leader.'"

Shard smirked and let out a chuckle, striving to speak more cheerfully, "Heh heh, thanks, but I think I'm a bit too small to even lift some of those things. Thank you again."

Knockout grinned and sauntered away, and Shard smiled sadly. She hoped he thought she was completely ok. Caterwaul nuzzled her arm gently, and Shard mentally winced at the reminder of Phaser.

One more scar to add to her list- her biggest mental one yet. Incredibly though, it seemed to be starting to heal much faster than she was used to. Maybe it was because she had friends...


	24. Chapter 24

**Helloooo! Well, here I am, and this chapter is gonna be mostly a filler chapter, 'cause I mushed together a couple earlier chapters so that the "Phaser" chapter would be the 20****th**** chapter. (Wow, that's a lot a' chapters.) I have this thing that I always like the big exciting or important things to happen on chapters that are multiples of five. Weird, yes? Anyway, on to the reviews!**

**To ****AutobotSoShi****: Yes, friendship there is. And Shard is happy for that.**

**And here's a wonderful review on my first Caterwaul story!**

**To ****Starsong008****: Yup! (I admit, I like 'im too now!) Yeah, I kinda forget what the point was of me writing that, though, except to freak him out. Wow, I wonder why some animals do that. -Something worse? *grimaces*- Thank you very much, I'm really glad you like my story! Thank you again!**

**Ok then, on to the filler chappy-ter! Which I'm kind of making up as I go along!**

Shard was dreaming. It was a strange dream, as usual.

In the dream, she was eating a pizza slice in her 'bedroom' at the abandoned apartment. Phaser was laying flopped on her head and asking in English, "Now? Now? Now? Now may I have the pizza?"

Shard told him 'no,' but then Lightray was sitting in her arms, and Phaser's tail was wrapped around her shoulder and then the pizza slice was an entire pizza on the floor, being torn apart by the four kittens.

They ripped at it, laughing. Then they looked up at Shard with crazy grins, and it looked like blood was on their faces and teeth.

The kittens ran around the room, then walked up the walls and disappeared. They left paw-prints of blood, which spread into puddles of blood, and then plants started growing from the blood.

The plants froze into ice and shattered, and the fragments scratched at Shard and hit and pulled like pointy hands. An old-fashioned camera took a picture of it, and the ice melted.

Then Phaser was stirring something in a boiling cauldron in a dark room and wearing a Pilgrim-hat, while Shard poked through the evil M.E.C.H. leader's guts on a metal operating table with a compass. (The V-shaped pointy kind you use to make circles.)

Light green goo spurted out, and a small rat added it to the boiling cauldron. Then she and Phaser threw the evil human off a small cliff onto a pile of blood-stained bricks shaped like stalagmites. The kittens turned into wolves and danced around a campfire, chanting "Sparta!"

And then fish were flopping on the ground except that the ground was in the air and it was raining. And the rain that hit the ground turned into tiny sphere-shaped bones, which a dog (who was Shard but then wasn't, and was screaming with Shard's voice) ran through and scattered all over.

The raindrops/ bones disintegrated and blew away, and Shard started coughing. She could still hear coughing, but it sounded like a gurgling sound too. She ran to find Phaser, and could see herself running, but everything was dark.

She yelled his name, and felt her clothes dripping with blood- her blood. She tripped over something silver and furry, which she could tell felt very sad because she had tripped over it/him. Another gurgling cough.

There was a veterinarian-building in front of her, and she heard someone crying "Why? Why?!" over and over, but they were also crying, "Why not?" and then she woke up.

The girl panted slightly, shaken. She tried to remember the dream, so she could turn it into a story to tell the animals. Phaser liked it when she told stories with lots of hand motions and gesturing.

No, wait, he wasn't here; Shard was on the Decepticon ship, very far away from Phaser and the apartment. Maybe when she went back she could tell-

An image popped into her mind of herself crouching by a small grave with wilting flowers on it, and talking at it. Phaser?

No... He... What happened, couldn't that have been part of her dream too? Please? She had the faint idea in the back of her mind that dismissing the horrible events as a dream was annoyingly cliché of her.

Shard glanced at her arm to confirm what she wished not to. Yes, there were Phaser's claw-marks. From a little bit before he died. The girl was a fast healer, and she wanted to keep these claw-marks. Once they formed scabs, she would pull them off, and the scars would stay.

Then she could look at them and remind herself... Phaser existed. He'd made those marks and they were proof that he had existed and that Shard wanted to remember him... No, was that it? No, still nothing was making/ made sense.

Shard was very unhappy that Phaser was dead. She couldn't seem to feel anything sharper/deeper than 'unhappy.' 'That's horrible of me!' she thought, angry and disgusted at herself, 'I allowed Phaser to die, I shouldn't be just _unhappy_! People cry when loved ones die- oh, weird/ sad rhyme- No! Think of Phaser!'

Shard squeezed her eyes closed hard, clenching her fists. She felt the warm floor underneath her- warmed from her laying on it all night- and her arched back pressed against the cool wall behind her as she curled up into a ball.

And for the next few minutes, she mentally berated herself, curling up tighter and shuddering, clenching her teeth, and digging her pointed nails into her palms so hard that the skin broke and they bled slightly.

She could've probably gotten Phaser to a veterinarian or something, the girl thought regretfully. Her mind had slipped across or around the idea/ topic earlier, but she hadn't really thought about it.

If she'd thought to get Phaser to a vet, maybe... Had she thought of that but decided not to, because she was afraid that humans would catch her? Shard couldn't remember. She couldn't even recall how she'd gotten to this topic... Oh yeah, part of her dream. What'd happened in it...?

Shard tried to push herself back to thinking about Phaser, but she just felt too tired. So she pushed herself up into a sitting position, head flopping to the side and eyes half-open.

She glanced down. Her tracking-bracelet was still on her right wrist. It's Decepticon insignia was glowing. Shard let out a quiet, frustrated groan.

She tried to take the thing off, but it wouldn't un-clasp or un-hook or whatever un-something that it was supposed to do. So Shard pointed her wrist- and the screen- away from her with an aggrieved face and a sigh.

After what felt like 10 minutes, but was probably only 2, Shard was thoroughly bored. She felt guilty/thought that this was foolish of her, because she should still be grieving for Phaser.

So she rifled through her backpack, which she'd left near her before she went to sleep. She pulled out a couple slightly bent pieces of paper, chose the least-bent one, and then pulled out a pencil.

This, she sharpened by scraping with her metal blade, and then she knelt down to draw. She drew Phaser. She drew how he'd looked as he was dying, but made him be smiling as he touched his nose to Lightray's.

She didn't want Phaser to be sad, even in this picture. Satisfied that the drawing was completed, Shard placed it as carefully as possible back into her backpack, hoping it wouldn't smudge at all.

Then she leaned back against the wall, having no clue as to what she should do now. So she stayed like that, stared into space, and thought of sad songs.

She imagined different sort-of videos with Phaser in them, to go along with the songs. Shard closed her eyes and moaned, curling up again.

There was a noise, and then the same noise again- the door opening and closing, and then someone was asking, "Shard? Are you alright?" It was Caterwaul, and she sounded concerned.

Shard jerked her head up and let it flop back down a couple times in a nod. "Mm'fine." 'Fine,' meaning 'I am alive and not grievously injured or ill, and I don't want you to worry.' Not 'I'm mostly alright/ok.' So she was fine.

Caterwaul padded closer and Shard opened her eyes to see the feline standing in front of her, about two feet away, parallel to the wall and slightly turned toward her, like a comforting wall to curl around her.

Shard shrunk back a little, eyes squinting. She hoped she hadn't made Caterwaul feel hurt, and apologized, "Sorry. Too close. Don't like peop-... persons... being too close right now. Sorry."

Caterwaul nodded slowly, still looking a bit worried for her. "Megatron wants you to help out with some small chores," she told Shard regretfully, not wanting to make the girl work on stuff when she was still... well, bleh.

""Uh-huh," Shard responded quietly/distantly, almost as if she hadn't heard. The girl stared off into space for a couple more seconds, finishing up a scene in her mind-video sad-song, and then pulled herself up.

"Where d'I go?" Shard asked, thoughts and voice both blurry. Caterwaul nodded towards the door, "Soundwave will tell you. He wanted me to come and bring you."

"Ohhkay..." the girl responded, still mumbling-sounding. There was something she wanted to remember about that 'Con, but what was it...? 'Oh yeah,' she thought, looking at her bracelet, 'He an' Megatron were watching. Grr hiss. Boo hiss. Something.'

She trudged towards the door and stopped, looking at it blankly. Caterwaul came over and opened the door, but Shard wasn't paying attention as to how.

(**Seriously! Can ANYONE tell me HOW those doors OPEN?! Motion-sensor? Weight-sensor? Panel or button to press? I don't know!**)

Shard nodded, mumbled a 'thanks,' and continued trudging. There was Soundwave. Apparently he was too scared to enter Caterwaul's room too, like most of the other 'Cons. Shard smirked a tiny bit at this thought. Just for a second.

Then she came to a stop a few feet away from the silent Decepticon and looked up at him, expression mostly tired and dull, but with the barest flicker of visible resentment for his and Megatron's spying.

"What do I have to do?" Shard spoke, making it more of a blunt statement than a question. The Decepticon replayed a video of Megatron listing a couple things for 'that human' to do, like continuing to clean up bits of rock in the other Decepticons' armor, and counting how many energon cubes the ship had in storage.

The girl nodded, then mumbled, "M'surprised he din' ask- uh, order, earlier." The quiet 'Con shook his head.

He showed a picture of Megatron, then a picture of the sky outside, which was really dark. Then the picture fast-forwarded, probably a couple of hours, until it was early-ish morning, and stopped. The picture was then replaced with a video of Soundwave sending Caterwaul to go and retrieve Shard.

The girl was surprised. "You... waited?" she asked, amazed by the fact that he had delayed in carrying out 'Glorious Megatron's' orders. Soundwave nodded. "Wow," Shard murmured, still a bit uncertain, "Thank you. Very much. ...W-Why did you?"

Soundwave's visor displayed a video- taken by the bracelet- of Shard, loosely curled up and asleep in the corner, eyes and hands twitching slightly. When she'd been dreaming.

Then a video of Shard looking at the scratches on her arm and then getting upset at herself, and then later curling up and shuddering. When Shard had been thinking of Phaser and making herself feel guilty.

Shard'd had no idea of how awful she'd looked- tense and shivering and glaring and shaking her head at herself. Kind of insane.

The girl hunched her shoulders in humiliation, and mumbled in a quiet voice, "Oh." She then nodded, hoping to distract herself from embarrassing memory, "Um, thanksfer' letting me rest. I'll go do my chores now."

As she shuffled away, there was a quiet noise nearby, and something touched her shoulder lightly. The noise had been enough warning, so the girl wasn't too startled, and she turned back to look.

It was one of Soundwave's tentacle-arm claw-thingies, lightly holding her shoulder. "Um, yes?" Shard asked uncertainly, wondering why he wanted her to stay.

The Decepticon released the girl's shoulder and replayed another video. _The_ Video, of Phaser dying, and Shard grieving over the still-warm body on her lap. The girl flinched, a twinge of resentment sparking in her hurt-looking eyes. It melted away as Soundwave continued.

He replayed a video of Megatron dismissively ordering some Vehicons to take the remains of dead Vehicons to the morgue/ place-to-store-_scrap-metal_. Shard felt her face contort slightly into a faint snarl at the gray Decepticon leader's callousness.

Soundwave nodded slightly. Then the visor switched back to an image of Shard's expression of guilt and sadness at Phaser's death. A last video showed the girl taking great care to be gentle as she gave the feline a respectful burial.

The Decepticon gave a small bow, leaning slightly forward and tilting his head down. Shard's eyes widened in astonishment. _Wow_.

"Thank you," the girl told him, "Thank you so much." She gave a sort of half-bow, half-curtsy to emphasize her gratitude, and the Decepticon nodded.

Shard glanced away, slightly embarrassed, a faint smile on her face, "I'm, uh, I'll be going to do my chores now. Thanks again." And she skittered away, chest tight and a happy-glow rippling through her.

Eventually, once Shard had completed her chores, she went back to her corner in Caterwaul's room, and drew Phaser again.

This time, he was happy and safe, and smiling. Shard was, too.


	25. Chapter 25

**Helloooo! We (my Dad, sister, and I) recently saw "Epic"! The movie is "Epic," and "Epic" is truly epic indeed. The title says it all! Well, not all. Some other words would help, like maybe fantastic. And Awesome, and Brilliant, and... Well, I could go on for a while. (I'm still amazed at this one fact: the villain actually **_**CARED**_**! He CARED about his OFFSPRING! This is a miraculous breakthrough and refreshing change from villains who insult and don't care! I applaud this movie! And maybe the villain a little bit too.)**

**Ok, now! ON TO THE REVIEWS before I start blathering on again about the epic movie "Epic" of epic epicness! ...Dat's a lot a' epic.**

**To ****Lydiathetigeropean****: Yay! I'm so very much glad that ya liked it. I think Soundwave is actually very nice deep inside.**

**To ****Guest/MRSDRAGONFIRE911****: Woooww, really? Thank you so very muchly much! I'm thrilled that you like it so much! Ok, ok, hahaha, more there shall be. Ooh, very neat Username. Ah yes, the logging in can indeed be a bit long-ish.**

**To ****Zrexheartz****: Hahaha haha, yes, Soundwave is marvelous. Hooray for him!**

**To ****AutobotSoShi****: Yup, Soundave is indeed so very cool. Heh, yeah, the dreams ARE weird- I think I did an ok job of making them seem the way real dreams are. Or my dreams, at least. Shard thanks you for your sympathy!**

**To ****Abyss Prime****: (... ***_**tries to keep a straight face. Starts grinning. Then smiles sheepishly with a 'What-do-YOU-think?' expression, and shrugs**_***) Ehhhhhheheh, maaaaaayyyybeeeeee...? ***_**grins again**_*** D'awwww, you figured it out! *_pouts slightly_* And so early on, too!**

**Heeheehee, well, on with the chappy-ter now then, yes?**

After recovering more fully from her depression-ish-ness, Shard decided to organize the stuff she'd brought. A good, fresh clean start would be good.

It had been decided that she would return to the human town once every week to one-and-a-half weeks. This way, she could gather up enough food to sustain her while on the _Nemesis_.

(Shard still thought of as, and called it, 'the ship.' 'The _Nemesis_' just sounded so much like a person who was a big giant enemy to some other person.)

Anyway. Shard set to unpacking her stuff. She'd eaten some of the food already, foolishly eating too much at once and gaining a mild case of nausea in the process. But, she was feeling better now, and trying to ration out the rest of the food.

The not-going-to-be-edible-much-longer food would have to be eaten first, and she kept it near the water bottles so it'd stay cooler and slightly more fresh for a bit longer. Thankfully, the ship was much cooler than the arid heat in the human-town anyway.

When Shard was finished organizing her food, she pulled out the rest of the stuff. There were: a cloth, a small bag of tiny plant-soap crumbs, a Bible, a second and third pair of T-shirts and shorts (one of the shirts was a mottled brownish-red color. It used to be white. O.O ), some interesting rocks and pebbles, and- an unbelievable treasure- a laptop!

FLASHBACK!

How she had gotten the marvelous piece of machinery was a combination of a victory in stealth, a bit of astonishing timing, and an example of human wastefulness.

Shard had been sneaking away from a fancy-ish house, where she had refilled her water bottles with hose-water. She'd had to sneak about very carefully in the dark, because there had been people awake and talking inside the house.

There had been a sharp crack or clatter inside the building and an annoyed exclamation, and Shard had instinctively darted into some sparse bushes to hide. She shifted her sand-stained backpack to hide her a bit more, and flopped her brown hair over her pale-ish face.

She would've raced away and hidden in the deeper shadows until she could get back to the apartment-home, but she wanted to know what had happened. Her curiosity was rewarded as a girl, about her age maybe, stalked out of the house in a huff, slamming the door, and practically threw something into a garbage can, then a smaller thing.

The person flounced back inside the house, slamming the door again. There was a sound of arguing inside, and Shard heard a muffled version of it. Something... "new... wrong with..." "Not _my_ fault..." something "broke..." "...get a new one..." "You... much it cost?!"

Much snappish yelling and bratty yelling. (Shard grimaced, cringing- she'd _hated_ it when her _own_ family got into arguments, and this family was even more yelling-y. Even if her parent had been only ranting furiously to herself about a bad day-at-work, the angry shouting had still always felt like Shard's fault, and it had hurt.)

Shard grimaced again, and waited for the lights to turn off inside the house, then padded almost silently to the garbage can. Inside, had been the laptop!

It'd had a big crack along one side of the casing, a small dent or two, with smaller cracks, some of the keys were stiff, and one part of the screen was dark and flicker-y. But, it'd been in mostly working order, and Shard had been thrilled.

The brat-person had even thrown out the power-charging-up cord thingy! It had a couple inches of torn rubber-covering, but Shard eventually fixed that, a couple days later, by sticking a partially melted rubber-band on it.

(Shard had been thoroughly glad that she'd brought along her magnifying glass all those months ago when she'd left her family's house.)

She did this a couple times over the weeks when the kittens had decided that the cord was on their list of Good Things To Bite. This list apparently included their parents' ears and tails, anything Shard ate, one another, and Shards hands.

And Shard'd had the laptop ever since.

END OF DA FLASHY-BACK!

Now, Shard opened it up, going on to YouTube and FanFiction, two fantastic websites that she had been deprived of since she first came to the ship.

Well, ok, got kidnapped and _taken_ to the ship, true, but she didn't think of herself as a captive anymore. The 'Cons were like adopted family!

Ooh, that'd be fun- thinking up comparisons of the 'Cons as family members. Noowww, who to start with? How 'bout Knockout? He was the one who captured her in the first place.

Knockout was sort of like a really cool uncle, the kind who the kids admire because he does extreme sports or something, and who the dad could be jealous/disapproving of. Megatron was... hmm, he was like... kinda like a landlord of some sort, who bossed everyone around, and who almost everyone secretly made fun of.

Caterwaul was like an older sister to the others, or like a slightly younger aunt who hangs around to keep the guys in check because she knows that they'll probably do stupid things and get in trouble otherwise.

And Breakdown... well, he would be the uncle who really cares for his wife (_Was_ it 'wife'? Shard didn't know if he and Caterwaul were married, or what the Cybertronian equivalent was), and likes to rough-house with his brothers (mainly Knockout), but doesn't really know how to deal with the one little kid in the family (Shard).

The Vehicons were... hmm, they'd be like lots and lots of brothers. Shard _would_ say twins, or triplets or quadruplets or some much higher number, but she didn't know any term higher than octuplet (8), and she wasn't even sure if that was the right term. Or where the Vehicons came from.

She let out a deep sigh as she thought. Hm. Problem. When she breathed out, it sounded... off. There was a faint noise, like a bag of loose gravel shifting a bit, or a creaky door closing really, really slowly.

She breathed in, and her throat or lungs or something made the same noise again. Shard coughed involuntarily, and the noise stopped.

Hmm...It was probably just a little cough, and if not, she'd deal with it. 'Now,' Shard thought, 'back to thinking about comparing the Decepticons to members of a family.'

Aaaannd Soundwave... Who/what would he be? Maybe a really mysterious and clever adopted brother, who knows every inch of the 'family's' home, knows almost everything about everyone, and rarely calls attention to himself unless he deems it necessary. Shadowy and kind and intriguing...

'Well,' Shard thought/reasoned, slightly embarrassed for some reason, 'not _exactly_ like a brother...'

She spotted the green Decepticon insignia glowing on her bracelet. The girl looked at the bracelet-screen, a smile quirking her mouth to the side. The insignia's glow hastily turned off, and Shard felt a grin spreading across her face.

For some reason, a tiny bit of the slow and wistful lyrics from an 'Owl City' song drifted up in her mind as she thought of the shadowy Decepticon; "I'm a _siiii_-louhette... Asking _ev_'ry now an' _then_..."

This made Shard thoughtful, but then she lost all traces of seriousness as she thought a couple more lyrics, with accompanying imagined-pictures; "Chasin' _rain_bows on _mah_ own..." The image/idea of the solemn 'Con running after a moving rainbow made Shard giggle.

She thought about listening to the song on her laptop, then wondered if the laptop would be able to be powered by energon, or hooked up to the ship. With the Decepticons' permission, and it would hardly require anything, compared to the gigantic Cybertronians...

Her musing was politely interrupted by Caterwaul, telling her that Breakdown wanted Shard to come over. The femme sounded faintly amazed at this fact, and Shard's expression seconded the emotion. Mainly in the form of `0.O .

Caterwaul opened the door and the girl warily entered Breakdown's room, only half-joking as she glanced around for tripwires on the ground and pails of rocks above her head. Seeing none of these still didn't make her feel any safer though.

She hadn't mentioned her almost-completely-certain guess that the blue 'Con had been the one who'd been hurt by the eeeevilll peeeopllle. She hadn't bothered him or been nasty. So this asking-for-a-visit couldn't be one of doom, right?

That would be something Megatron would probably do if he ever found out that Shard sometimes called him 'Megatwit.'

"Hey," stated Breakdown, causing Shard to jump and stifle a yelp.

She glanced back to see Caterwaul leaving the room, and the door closing. Doom!

"Ehhh... hi," Shard stated, giving a little wave, mucho de nervous.

The burly Decepticon walked forward and reached out an arm, causing Shard's eyes to widen slightly and her muscles to tense up, though she tried to stay still.

Then he patted her side with one giant hand. The small human felt her 'I'm-gonna-die!' surge of racing adrenaline abruptly deflate into a feeling of relief-and-'I'm-gonna-fall-over-since-I'm-now-made -of-floppy-noodles.'

(Sorta like that scene from "How To Train Your Dragon," when Toothless screeches in Hiccup's face, and then zips away, and Hiccup gets up and faints. "Uh'ih-eahh!")

"Sorry 'bout what happened," the huge Decepticon told her, a bit awkward but looking sympathetic, "Caterwaul says you really fought back at those humans. Good job." A huge smile covered Shard's face. Yay! She was officially accepted!

"Thanks," she told Breakdown, thrilled at the praise, "That... means alot." This felt like DiNozzo or McGee... no, like _Palmer_, on 'NCIS' suddenly getting a fatherly hug from _Gibbs_! (I doubt/don't know if this's happened; but if it has, I would LOVE to see it.)

"You doing better now?" Breakdown asked, and Shard nodded, adding in, "Been getting better. I was thinking about maybe going on my laptop."

"What's that?" Breakdown asked, and Shard's eyebrows went up a little. 'Tthhe 'Connns... do not _knowww_... of lllaptops,' she thought slowly, 'Huh.'

So she told him how it was a flat-ish device with a key-pad and screen for looking up info, playing games on, and going to websites (like YouTube or FanFiction) upon, etc. Breakdown seemed interested, and by the next day, they were watching a movie on it in Spanish.

Shard kept wondering why he requested to watch different-language dubbed videos. She got her answer a couple days later, when Caterwaul left the room (that she let Shard share with her), and went to do 'exercises.'

Shard crept after, following the Decepti-cat to an exercise/ training room. There, the girl hid behind some stuff which was there to make practice-fights more interesting. (To hide behind, to throw, to jump off of, etc.)

The girl was unsurprised and faintly smug to see Breakdown meeting Caterwaul there, but very surprised at what then happened. The two 'Cons spoke for a moment, and then... Caterwaul transformed!

Shard had seen the others transform from robot-mode to vehicle-mode several times, but had only seen Caterwaul in her a clouded leopard form, and the furless robotic version of one. Now she looked less feline-y and a bit more like the other 'Cons in robot-form, but female.

The feline- no, not so feline-y, Caterwaul, then pushed off from the ground, and abruptly stood up on her hind legs-no, just normal-legs. Her tail was held stiffly out for balance, and her arms wavered at her sides, hands clenching.

Shard's eyes widened at the look of suppressed pain on Caterwaul's face. Breakdown offered to help her, but the femme tersely shook her head 'no.' A few seconds later, (maybe 11 or 12, Shard thought), Caterwaul's grimace deepened and she dropped back down to all fours, kneeling uncomfortably and leaning on her hands.

Her legs were trembling, and her limp tail twitching slightly. The giant blue Decepticon gently stroked Caterwaul's arms and side, encouraging her, and the femme closed her optics happily, purring faintly and thanking him.

After about a minute, she stood up again. Shard noticed a small dent or bend in the female Decepticon's spine. Was she hurt, and this was like physical therapy?

After a few more seconds, Caterwaul took a step forward, uttering a thin groan and grimacing in obvious pain, and Shard cringed in sympathy. Caterwaul took another step, and let out a pained, screeching yelp.

Her back arched, twisted, and she fell forward with her front legs- no, arms- outstretched. Before the femme could hit the floor, Breakdown put his arm in front of her, and she collapsed against it.

"Gracias," Caterwaul told him weakly, her voice nearly a whimper, "Mi cariño."

"...N-no problem," the blue 'Con answered hastily, then added quickly, seeming embarrassed or nervous, "Te quiero, mi corazón."

Caterwaul's golden optics gleamed, surprised and thrilled, and she purred warmly, nuzzling Breakdown's hand ecstatically.

Later, Shard looked up the words on Google Translate.

"Thank you, my love," and "I love you, my heart."

***huge smiles* ... 83 8) Also, the 'Owl City' song is called "Silhouette."**


	26. Chapter 26

**Hello! I woulda updated sooner, but I had evil finals to review for, and they made my brain rot and be exhausted, so I couldn't type. Anyway, now I can!**

**To ****Musical Prime****: Hm, Lemme try to read that without GoogleTranslate... 'Do you speak Spanish?' A little, only bits and pieces. '[something] a class[?] and [something] very [something] bilingual.' Sorry, I dunno much Spanish. ...Ok, **_**now**_** I'll use Google Translate. Ok: a little. Oh cool that's neat! Gracias, thank you very much! And thanks for reviewing! And neat! Yer' the 101st reviewer fer this here FanFic! Yaayy, good for you!**

**To ****Lydiathetigeropean****: Heh heh, yep, fluff there be! EH? Really? How can the flashback describe yer' day? You drank hose water and found a laptop in a garbage can while sneaking about, I say as a joking guess? Ohh, and thank you so very muchly! I'm really glad ya liked it. Oh and cool! You're the 100th reviewer fer' this here story! WOOHOOO!**

**To ****Abyss Prime****: Heh heh heh heh. Yes, yes, you were riiight... (**_**Shard**_**: BE QUIET! *whacks me on the head with a stick* Don't talk about my personal issues! **_**Me**_**: But the story's about YOU! **_**Shard**_**: ... Rrgh.) Yep, you are good. Ok, I'll be trying to update sooner.**

**To ****AutobotSoShi****: Yes, hahaha, the love is indeed so very happy. Nah, I get it, I speak crazy-talk with me sis and ferrets muchly. ...Whoa, two soda-thingies and two... 'sherbet' packs? Are/were you on a sugar-high then when you reviewed? Actually, I really don't know what sherbet is. A type of pudding? **

**To ****zrexheartz****: Yes, Caterwaul and Breakdown looooov- **_**Caterwaul**_**: SILENCE! *smacks me on de head* **_**Me**_**: Ow! Wait, where's the Silence? **_**Caterwaul**_**: What? **_**Me**_**: The Silences from Doctah Hoo. ('Doctor Who,' but said in an accent.)**

**Ok now. On with de chapter!**

_**Quirks And New Developments**_**(Look, see? I'm adding chapter titles!)**

After another day, Shard was wishing she had brought along a couple more of her scant possessions. Namely, her hairbrush, toothbrush, and some tissues.

Why? Her hair, which she petted and sometimes braided when bored, was getting really snarled, and pulled when she ran her fingers through it. Her teeth had annoying gunk on them which she had to scrape away with her nails. And her nose was annoyingly stuffy.

She'd used plant-made soap bits for her hair, and water for teeth-brushing, but didn't have a replenishing supply o' tissues at her apartment-home, so she'd re-used the ones she had.

It hadn't been very hygienic, but it had worked, mostly. (Not so much when the kittens decided to play with the tissues and shred them, though.) Now she had almost no tissues.

Shard pulled a piece of dead skin off her bottom lip with her teeth as she thought. Then she regretted it when she poked the spot with her tongue and tasted something sour and salty. Ihck. Not again.

The girl wiped off her mouth with her shirt, then licked her finger and rubbed it on the slightly-bleeding spot. Ugh, tasted bad. Shard made a face, hoping it'd quit bleeding soon so she wouldn't have to worry about swallowing any blood.

Her Bible, which she'd kept with her after she left home, mentioned that ingesting blood was bad. That was why she made sure to get as much blood as possible out of the few rats she ever killed, before she ate any of the meat.

And, interestingly enough, she'd heard from news reports or something that research had recently showed that taking in blood was indeed bad. And Bible-writers had known this _way_ before modern medicine. ...Interesting.

So Shard kept her Bible with her; it had good advice, and she could read the more exciting parts of it if she got bored.

Shard chuckled to herself as she thought of one scripture, in which one person told another "Do not blab of this to anyone," or something similar. 'Blab.' It was such a funny word in the usually serious text.

Speaking of serious... the girl grimaced guiltily at one of the main things she had trouble with: holding deep grudges. She'd recently spent about ten minutes thinking of several agonizing and horrific ways that the evil M.E.C.H. leader human could have his life... 'prematurely end.'

The girl breathed in, to sigh deeply, but instead coughed. Then again. The coughing continued longer than usual, and Shard hacked up a small glob of phlegm. She grimaced and spat it into a tissue, one of the last ones she had with her. Great.

But Shard shrugged and ignored it. She had more interesting things to do that cough into a tissue and worry about her health. It wasn't like she could do much about it anyway, and the cough might go away on its own.

Now, on to those interesting things... Apparently, the 'Cons had battle practice- non-lethally fighting one another; an activity that Megatron had decided would benefit them greatly. It **didn't**, but Shard'd heard it was fun to watch.

That room where Caterwaul had been earlier, standing on her hind legs, was where it usually took place. (Though occasionally there'd be a scuffle elsewhere if the 'Cons were bored or annoyed at one another.)

So Shard strolled through the halls to that there room. Ahh, it was a Caterwaul-fight this time, eh? But not a practice-fight with Breakdown. Shard could tell because she was able to hear Caterwaul's chuckling, and a frustrated voice.

Breakdown and Caterwaul always went easy n one another for fight-practicing, and there were usually compliments instead of snickering or exclamations of fear.

While Breakdwn could get away with a couple tiny scratches even if Caterwaul was in a bad mood, most of the other 'Cons had to deal with large bite-wounds, some burn marks, and occasionally some psychological trauma.

The human girl chuckled to herself, wondering if she should be taking notes, coughed again, and then heard a freaked-out yelp and weapon-fire. _That_ was new!

Shard started running, then relaxed when she heard Caterwaul scolding the 'Con who had fired the shot. It was something along the lines of "You know the rules, no shooting allowed, or at least on low power."

A Vehicon voice replied in exasperation, scoffed something else, and the practice-fight continued. Shard wished she could reach the long window, high up in the wall, so she could watch. Unable to reach it, even on tiptoe, she tried to jump and grab hold of the slight ledge.

...Nope, couldn't reach, though her fingertips scraped the edge of it, which hurt a bit. Then she heard Caterwaul exclaim in pleased surprise, "Oh! So _that's_ where I left that thing!" A pause. "Did you two want to keep fighting or...?" Two immediate replies of "No no! We're fine!" Oh, _two_ Vehicons- that explained the extra speakings.

Caterwaul trotted happily out of the room, head held high and carrying something in her mouth like a dog with a large bone.

Except that _here_, the 'bone' was a long, thin, cylindrical piece of black metal, which looked like a big insect leg that someone had stuck a high-heel-shoe on one end of. Oh yeah, and there was dried energon-blood on the other end.

Less than 20 minutes later, Shard spotted Caterwaul dumping the mangled and shredded remains of the object into a garbage chute. Then she made a face that reminded Shard of the one a kitten had made when he bit into a dead rat's recently vacated bladder. (Sort of like (~_0), but more disgusted)

Shard then noticed that the feline had accidentally dropped little scraps of the object in a trail on the ground. "Oh," Caterwaul stated, then promptly stabbed the pieces with her tail blade like a shishkabob and scraped them off into the garbage chute.

Shard shrugged, thought the incident had been interesting, and didn't give it any more thought. The day after that, she had something much more interesting to focus on!

Megatron had called a meeting in the main control room, which all of the main 'Cons and some of the Vehicons went to. Shard wasn't invited, but she snuck along anyway.

She figured she wasn't doing any harm- if she was, Soundwave probably would have alerted Megatron to the girl's presence. So, Shard hid on the other side of the room behind some mechanical equipment by a doorway.

One good thing about being a small human in a ship full of giant robotic alien-persons and their giant alien devices and supplies? You can hide almost anywhere.

Shard held her breath so as to be as quiet as possible, and she listened intently as Megatron addressed the 'Cons.

The fancy speaking bored her, so she paraphrased/translated to normal-speak in her brain: "I'm Megatron, yer' ever-so brilliant leader, blah blah blah, we need more troops who the Autobots won't kill the way they kill Vehicons so quickly..."

Shard felt two different expressions forming on her face: anger at Magatron and the Autobots, and pity and sympathy for the Vehicons. Protectiveness? Maybe that was it, though she scoffed at the idea of a tiny human like herself being able to protect any huge Cybertronian.

"To put it simply," Magatron hissed in his always-raspy-and-annoyed-or- aggressive voice, "We need more Decepticons, mainly due to Starscream's absence and the fact that _**no one knows what happened to Airachnid...**_"

Shard noticed that Caterwaul, standing in the back of the group of assembled Decepticons, had lowered her head, and her shoulders were shaking. Shard wondered if the feline was sad for her missing comrades.

(In fact, the opposite was true, and Caterwaul was grinning and silently snickering to herself. _She_ knew what'd happened to that Lousy Bug...! Those government people with the fat guy in a suit had really appreciated the Decepticat's gift of a partially de-limbed spidery robot. (Oh, and I say 'robot' because I feel the Lousy Bug doesn't deserve to be called a Cybertronian, or even a Decepticon.))

Breakdown nudged Caterwaul with his hand to warn her not to make any noise, and the feline playfully batted at his hand with her paw, smiling. He grinned back down at her, and then they turned their attention back to Megatron.

"And so that is why..." the gray-ish leader concluded, "We shall be creating a new Decepticon!"

**Hallooo! Here I be again. I would've updated sooner, maybe on the first day of Summer, but I didn't. There was a pool party, went to see a move, and one of our fish (named Eod, like 'Geode') died. Sorry! When Megatron says 'creating a new 'Con,' he means building a little sparkling who'll grow up into a Decepticon. Oh, and if yer' wondering what happened to the Lousy Bug, hehehe, I decided to have it greatly injured by Caterwaul- during that battle that Shard saw right before she went with the Decepticons. Then Caterwaul hands the Lousy Bug over to Agent Fowler's people, where it is kept in restraints. Heh heh heh. Not tortured like how the evil M.E.C.H. people would, but just imprisoned. Ain't I generous.**


	27. Chapter 27

**Hello, yo, hola, and greetings to ya all!**

**To ****AutobotSoShi****: Heh eh eh heh heh, thank you so very much for agreeing. *continued chuckling* Hmm... Ahh, so **_**that's**_** what sherbet is; thank you. Haha ha, hooray for hyperness! I go hyper when I have desserts and people come to our house to visit and watch movies.**

**To ****Lydiathetigeropean****: Oh, thank you so very muchly much! Woohoo, yes! Down, doowwwnn with all them evil-y peeeoplle!**

**To ****Abyss Prime****: Haha, thanks. I was sort of partially joking/kidding though. Ehhhh, heh heh heh, *grins* yeesss, this is true... But it's not gonna be like you might expect for making a sparkling (nothing gross)...**

**And nooww, on with the chappy-ter!**

_**Health And Stuff**_

Shard's jaw dropped in amazement; the Decepticons were going to make another 'Con? How? 'Ok, ew,' the girl abruptly thought, scrunching up her face, 'I did NOT mean it like THAT! *shudders* Ugh.'

Her innocent-and-then-grossed-out train of thought ended as she noticed what Caterwaul and Breakdown were doing. They were SMILING!

Breakdown rarely ever happy-smiled, and that was usually with Caterwaul. But now, he was not only smiling but SMILING! The word started sounding funny/weird after Shard thought it several times in a row.

And Caterwaul? The feline was grinning Cheshire-Cat style, and s_o_ much, that Shard grew inexplicably concerned that her face may fall off!

Some of the other Decepticons were giving them weird looks, the kind usually reserved for lunatics and the mentally deranged, but Knockout seemed to be hiding a smirk.

Megatron was apparently oblivious to all this- or just didn't care- and ended the meeting with some more blah-blah-ing about 'his' oh so brilliant plan. Bleaugh.

Shard felt her breathing getting rough and grating again, and felt slimy phlegm building up in her lower throat. She clenched her jaw, trying to breathe shallowly so she wouldn't cough.

The meeting drew to a close and the other Decepticons wandered away back to their duties, some giving Caterwaul and Breakdown some disturbed stares as they walked past the duo.

Once everyone else (except Soundwave, of course) had left the room, Megatron stepped off of the elevated platform from where he'd given his I-made-a-plan-oh-how-clever-am-I speech, and addressed the two.

To their credit, Caterwaul and Breakdown _did_ manage to shift their faces into at least semi-serious expressions, for Megatron's sake.

It was harder for Shard to hear now, since the gray Decepticon was talking more quietly, but Shard caught/overheard enough snippets to get the gist of it.

Basically, Megatron was telling them, 'I get the credit, you do the work, tell no one, because I'm the leader, I rule all.'

Shard rolled her eyes. Politics. She then frowned and held her breath as her rattling, shuttering breathing grew slightly louder.

Then Megatron left and Soundwave followed him out, with the gray Decepticon leader asking about supplies and how much energon and time something would take to build.

A solid two seconds after the bossy leader and watchful communications officer were out of sight, Caterwaul and Breakdown had their crazy grins back.

Then Caterwaul let out a high-pitched sort of giggle, "EEE-Heehee!", reared up on her hind legs for a second, _hugged_ Breakdown, and began running in circles on all fours.

A second later, the blue 'Con transformed into his vehicle mode (a jeep, Shard thought) and was chasing Caterwaul around the room, both laughing.

Shard briefly wondered if she had eaten spoiled food and was hallucinating. ...Nope, there were no flying cats or dancing bars of chocolate or blood-spattered knives of doom here, so she wasn't hallucinating.

The Dcepticon pair soon calmed down, and headed out of the room. Shard waited for a few seconds, then snuck around to follow them as quietly as possible. As she snuck past a corner near the medbay though, she heard Knockout calling her.

The medic wanted the human girl's assistance with some detail work on fixing a missing limb that a Vehicon had left for repairs. Shard let out a breathy groan of frustration- which dissolved into a racking cough.

Ah yes: something else to worry about- her coughing had worsened. Now Shard was hacking out bits of slimy gunk several times a day.

Shard hacked out a few more coughs and then cleared her throat so her voice wouldn't sound ragged or raspy, and then entered the medbay.

The girl had tried to hold in the rough noises so that no one would worry. Or complain. Megatron would probably complain.

Knockout, however... Shard wasn't sure which one was his reaction, but it might've been his patented, rarely-used, 'I-worry-but-I'm-going-to-disguise-my-concern-as-d isgust-or-annoyance' thing.

He gave a demonstration of this when Shard had to pause in the connecting of some wires in the damaged metal arm's inner casing, pulling away her hands and turning away to cough thickly and painfully.

"Human, _what_ are you _doing_?" Knockout questioned (in a disturbed, 'what-is-**wrong**-with-you' voice) after the long, gasping bout of coughing that left the girl slightly out of breath.

"A'ahh," she mumbled, "It's nothing. Just a cough. Humans get them sometimes." The scarlet medic cocked an optic-ridge, "You sound as though you're _ill_."

Shard shrugged, "Eh, maybe. Wouldn't be surprising."

"Why not?" Knockout inquired, chuckling, "Do you humans contract such noisy diseases like this often?"

Shard tried to reply, only to attempt to muffle another noisy cough, but it burst out, leaving her throat aching and slimy again. Ugh. Pitiful.

"Um," she managed to respond to the medic's inquiry, "Some humans are healthier than others. Though, there are some things that can trigger or cause an illness."

"For example?" Knockout prompted, and Shard let out a small, sighing groan. She wanted to go talk to Caterwaul, not attempt- and probably fail- to give a lecture about the frailties of her species.

But she tried anyway. "Sometimes different changes can make a person more vulnerable to getting sick. From viruses or bacteria, germ-y things. Stuf can weaken our immune systems. Changes could beee... liiike..."

She tried to think of some, and abruptly realized how many applied to her situation, "A sudden change in diet, I think, and or temperature, climate. Umm... stress. Eating different foods- no wait, I already said-" *cough* "-that. Stupid of me."

The scarlet medic tilted his head and scoffed slightly, questioning in amused disbelief, "You get ill from a change in weather or nutrient-intake? Humans are even more fragile than we'd thought!"

"Are not!" Shard argued childishly, "We can eat lots of different stuff, which keeps us healthy. From what I've seen, Cybertronians can only eat one type of thing: energon. Ha, sort of like koalas."

"What are 'koalas'?" the scarlet Decepticon asked, having no clue what the human was talking about.

"They're small, furry, chubby gray mammals- no wait, marsupials- who climb trees and eat only... eucalyptus leaves, I think. They're also called 'koala bears,' but they aren't bears."

"Then why are they called 'koala bears'?" Knockout asked, confused.

Shard laughed; it just looked and sounded so funny for Knockout- with his really cool, faintly-sneering voice- to be saying a funny little word like 'koala.'

"I dunno, Shard told him, though her own voice sounded thin and raspy, and she coughed to clear it. Again.

Then she continued, "Maybe 'cause the non-Australian people who first saw them thought they looked like little bear cubs. If bear cubs were light grey, had pouches and tall black nosy-s, and three fingers and two thumbs on each hand. And ate leaves."

"Ah-huhhh..." the Decepticon medic stated, possibly bored with discussing Earth-creatures, or having no idea what Shard was talking about.

"Well," he suggested, "Let's get back to work then, shall we?" Shard nodded, hoping she'd be able to hold off her coughing until a_fter_ she was finished helping do delicate repairs.

She was able to, much to her relief. Then Knockout told her to 'run along and do... whatever it is you humans do' to get well again.

"I don't know all that much about your species," the medic reminded Shard as the girl exited the medbay, "or how to cure its undoubtedly vast array of illnesses. But come back if your health deteriorates any more, and I'll see what I can do."

Shard smiled in appreciation, "Thanks, Knockout. You're a nice medic." The Decepticon scoffed at this as Shard left, but seemed pleased nonetheless.

Finally, the girl got to Caterwaul's room. She knocked on the door, which soon opened, and went inside.

(**I'm serious here. Can ANYONE tell me how those doors open?! Motion sensor, pressure sensor in the floor, a button, a panel? I honestly don't know!**)

"Thanks, Caterwaul," Shard told the Decepticat, then asked,  
Hey, um... Just wondering, but uh, why do we need another Decepticon? There are so many Vehicons already here."

Caterwaul frowned unhappily and told the girl, "Vehicons... what's that human-phase? ...They 'drop like flies,' during battles. The Autobots..." She trailed off.

Shard winced slightly as she remembered how many Vehicons usually got killed by the Autobots. None of the non-Vehicon Decepticons had been killed, at least none that Shard knew of. Maybe some had, before she'd been... 'adopted'? She hoped not.

"Yeah," the girl mumbled sadly, "Sorry. I mean, why build another 'Con? Wouldn't having more Decepticons just put a strain on the energon supply or something?"

Caterwaul pouted jokingly, "You're so depressing." Shard laughed at this, "Have you _heard_ some of the titles of the songs I listen to on my laptop? 'Bones Shatter,' 'Attack,' 'Time of Dying,' 'Bleed,' 'If Today Was Your Last Day,' 'Bleed,' 'What I've Done'...! I'm a _very_ depressing person."

The feline laughed at this, and motioned with one paw for Shard to continue, which she did. "So anyway. Now that my required and boringly logical questions are over with, how're ya gonna make another 'Con?"

Caterwaul's optics widened, and she quickly directed them away. Shard thought she saw the Decepticat's fur fluffing up too.

The girl cocked an eyebrow, then hastily shook her hands, "Ah, uh never-mind, 'cause if it's gross or something, then no. Never-mind, please don't tell me, sorry."

Caterwaul looked at the girl quizzically, then shook her head and reassured her, "No, don't worry, Shard; there's nothing inappropriate." –a huge sigh of relief from Shard- "What's going to happen.. is that we're going to build a sparkling- a baby Cybertronian."

"Oh, ok," Shard replied happily, "How's that work?"

"Well," Caterwaul explained, "I don't believe it's been done quite like this before, but after constructing the basic structure, two Decepticons are going to combine part of their spark-energy, with some help, to make the little one's spark- the soul and life force."

"Wooww," Shard breathed in amazement, and then asked, already having an idea of who, "Who's gonna do it?"

"The... the same two who will use small amounts of their alloys and materials to build the little one," Caterwaul mumbled, "Me and Breakdown."

**WEEHEEEE! OK, explanation time! Caterwaul and Breakdown are going to donate little bits of their armor, wiring, etc., to help build most of the frame/structure for a sparkling. Sort of like donating hair for wigs, or something like that, except many different materials for different parts of the body. Not enough to cause themselves harm, but enough to build a sparkling shape out of their combined materials. And then they're gonna use a special machine (which Knockout's gonna help/try to build) to artificially combine part of their sparks' energies. Nothing icky involved. So, what'cha think?**


	28. Chapter 28

**Hello! Here's another chappy-ter! ... Yeah, dat's all the news I got. *shrugs***

**To ****AutobotSoShi****: Yay- I'm so happy you think it's cute. Aww, thank you! **_**Aa! Really? Thank you sooo muchly muchly much indeed!**_** Yeah, Knockout can be really funny. (I loved that scene in season 2 episode 24, where Megatron says, "See to it that Knockout is extracted from the wall.")**

**To ****Iceshadow911247****: Heh, really? Thank you so much! I just came up with the idea 'cause I wasn't entirely sure how Cybertronians actually make Sparklings (and I didn't want to if it was gross or inappropriate). Hmmmm... Ahh, ok. Thank you soooo **_**very very**_** much- yer' the 1****st**** person to have given me any help with this door problem of mine- so, again, thank you!**

**To ****Abyss Prime****: Really? Aww, thank you so very muchly! You liked the idea for how to make a Sparkling? (I'm just so glad and honored that you/people think of **_**any**_** part of my story as being awesome. Thusly, thanks.)**

**To ****Summerflower13****: Hahaha, I'm really glad that you think it's funny- thank you. (Wow, I keep getting so many compliments here. Thank you all!) And ok, don't worry- I'll be trying to update this more frequently. This is one of my very favorite stories to write/type!**

**To ****zrexheartz****: Ohh, thank you! Ah, ok, thanks for the mentioning of panels. I'd seen sometimes the 'Cons using a panel- I think- and other times the doors seemed to be sort of automatic.**

**Ok. And nooww... On with, **_**the chapter**_**!**

**_Explanations And Plans_**

"You and Breakdown are gonna have a kid?!" Shard asked, her eyes widening. She'd faintly guessed what was going on, but still. To hear it confirmed aloud made it way more real.

"Wow. Just... wow," the girl stated. She felt her voice getting a bit thick and raspy and hoped the Decepticat wouldn't notice.

Caterwaul grinned sheepishly and nodded. She explained, "We're going to help build the framework for little one, the sparkling, with little pieces of ourselves."

Shard cocked her head, eyebrows bunching together in worry, "But wait. Isn't... Well, wouldn't that hurt? A lot?" She coughed slightly to clear her throat.

"No," Caterwaul assured her, "Or at least very little. But Cybertronians have slightly different types of metal making up different parts of their bodies, so it's necessary."

"Hm," Shard stated, still a bit worried, but she shrugged and asked, "Sort of like humans have hair, nails, skin, inner organs, and stuff?"

Caterwaul nodded, "Yes, something like that. We will make the framework, and then use a device- which I believe Knockout has been ordered to construct- to combine part of our sparks' energies. And the little one will be a part of both of us. I can't wait."

The femme sounded both excited and nervous or shy. Like a bride or an expectant mom, Shard guessed, though she only had this idea from watching movies and stuff.

"Sooo," Shard asked, only just realizing that this was a good time to ask, "How long have you and Breakdown been married, Caterwaul?"

The Decepticat cocked her head. She inquired, "Married? I don't believe I've heard that word on Earth yet."

Shard shrugged, stumbling a bit over the explanation. First she'd have to explain weddings. And yeah, it was special for the couples who got married, but for her, watching, on those few times she'd attended weddings...?

(To her, weddings meant: her being stuck in a skirt and sitting in a chair feeling bored with her equally-bored sister, watching a bunch of adults giving a repetitive speech for what felt like hours. And watching other adults in suits or dresses, smiling and crying. And then a dance party sometimes, but she couldn't dance anyway, so it was just noisy with crowds of peeeoplle.)

"Well, they start with a wedding. It's usually a big formal thing... Well, it's a ceremony, where a man and woman who love one another promise to keep loving one another and to stay together faithfully for the rest of their lives. Everyone's all dressed up and there's usually an old guy there giving a speech, and the couple put rings on one another's hands and say 'Ah **do**.'"

The girl put in a sight accent when saying 'I,' and concluded, "And being married is the being-together-for-all-eternity-afterwards part, where humans buy a house, have kids, etc."

"Ah," Caterwaul agreed, perking up, "Yes, I believe we have that sort of thing- similar at least- on Cybertron. And... I _believe_... it's called 'Spark-bonding.' But I don't know if there is a ceremony, or if it's a gradual process between spark-mates..."

"How come you don't know?" Shard asked, cocking her head to one side, "You _are_ an adult Cybertronian after all."

Caterwaul sighed and shook her head. "The War between Autobots and Decepticons has been raging for a long time. I was still rather young when it erupted full-scale, (and I never got around to asking my parents that sort of question), and there have been few or no occasions such as spark-bonding since then. At least that I know of."

Shard cocked her head again, "So yer' sayin' yer' old?"

Caterwaul drooped her shoulders, "Did you get anything out of what I just said?"

... "...Yeah," Shard answered unconvincingly, then proceeded to give a blunt and unsophisticated summary, "The War's been goin' on really long and all the happy stuff is muted. I'm just focusing on the fact that you said-" – and here she adopted a dramatically wistful tone – "'when I was _young_,' or something like dat. So are you old? You don't seem it."

Caterwaul sighed indulgently, and answered Shard's question, "No. No, I'm not very old. If I were a human, I would be... most likely almost 30 years old."

"Ohhh," Shard stated, nodding her head and widening her eyes in curiosity, "So what about the others?" She felt a cough building up in her throat and suppressed it.

Caterwaul snorted at the question and shrugged, "I don't know, except for Breakdown. He's my age, give or take a Cybertronian year or two. But I don't plan on asking the others _their_ ages. I believe humans consider that to be rude as well?"

Shard shrugged, "Eh." _She_ didn't care.

Before her offhanded disregard for human preferences could distract her from her puzzling, Shard thought of an idea and asked it.

"Could we maybe ask an Autobot?" Then she cringed slightly at her idea.

Autobots killed Vehicons, so the girl doubted that they'd be very friendly or helpful to a Decepticon. Though... they _had_ seemed ok-ish when they'd helped the crazy red-and-white Autobot who'd had green energon-blood.

Caterwaul shook her head, looking embarrassed, "No, no. That would be... weird."

Shard cocked her head, "Why weird?" She then remembered how Caterwaul had been talking with Breakdown when they'd thought Shard'd been asleep. Caterwaul had said that the Autobots were mostly good.

"Because," Caterwaul informed her, optics darting towards the door, "For one thing, they're our enemies. And it would be embarrassing."

The feline stood up, arched her back, and stretched, "And second, I have no way of contacting them anyway, unless I ask to use the main control-room's computer. Which I won't."

Then the Decepticat abruptly laid her stomach on Shard's hand. "Ow!" the human exclaimed, though more out of annoyance than pain. Annoyance at having her hand being sat-on, rather than the slight pain of her wrist hurting as she tried to pull it back.

"And three," Caterwaul hissed in a conspiratorial whisper, her golden optics narrowed, "I'm supposed to be helping the 'Bots by sabotaging Megatron's plans and messing things up! Not... well... being very close to... one of the Decepticons who... works for him."

Shard's eyes widened, and Caterwaul quickly raised a paw to cover the girl's mouth. Shard pulled back and snapped her jaw closed.

Caterwaul put her paw back down, and Shard whispered in disbelief, "You're a spy?! A- an infiltrato- *t'cough cough*" She suddenly started coughing as she said the last syllable of the word 'infiltrator,' and her raspy throat ached.

Caterwaul looked concerned, but apparently didn't know what to do. That was ok, Shard figured as the hacking and coughing died away. The girl didn't like people trying to help her when she didn't need help.

If she were coughing out lots of blood everywhere- Shard winced at the reminder of Phaser- or if her fingers or something were going to fall off, then sure, she would welcome help! But she didn't need assistance or pity for a little cold.

"Uhh, are you alright?" Caterwaul asked as Shard coughed lightly a couple times to regain her breath. Then girl grimaced, and pulled out a tissue to get the slimy phlegm out of her mouth. A couple seconds later, she nodded.

"Yeah," she rasped, clearing her throat again, "I'm fine. So! Back to planning. 'Kay?"

Caterwaul looked disturbed that the girl was completely ignoring her own earlier distress, and apparently seeming to forget all about it.

"Shard, you looked like you were in pain," Caterwaul told her worriedly, "I retch out metal to make myself smaller, and that's what it looked as if you were doing. I don't believe humans are supposed to do that."

Shard laughed, but it sounded hoarse. She reassured the Decepticat, "No, don' worry. I'm fine. Humans sometimes get a little bit ill. That's all. It was just a coughing fit, and I'll be totally fine soon. Okay?"

The feline still looked uneasy, though she conceded reluctantly, "Alriiight... Well, maybe one of those Autobot-humans could ask. About the spark-bonding, that is."

"'Autobot-humans'?" Shard asked, cocking her head. Caterwaul nodded, warming up to the idea, "Yes. Yes! There are three human children who spend time with the Autobots and are their allies."

The girl's eyes widened in amazement, "You mean there are _other_ humans who know about Cybertronians? Besides me and the scum-known-as M.E.C.H.?" She twitched slightly.

"Yes," Caterwaul told her excitedly, "Perhaps you could get in contact with one of the other young humans, and get them to ask the Autobots!"

"Umm..." Shard stated dubiously, "I don't even know what these kids look like. If they're older than me, younger than me, where they are?"

"Oh, I can easily tell you what they look like," Caterwaul assured her, "Or you could find some way to get Soundwave to show you what they look like."

Shard frowned. She didn't like that. It'd feel bad, like she would be manipulating him.

"Well, ok," she allowed uncomfortably, "How about you tell me what they look like? But even if I know who they are, how..." She trailed off.

"How can you contact them?" Caterwaul finished for her glumly.

Shard grimaced at the aggravatingly obvious-to-her answer, then stated in growing horror, "I'd have to go... to... _school_!"

**Oooh, tough decision! Stay relatively safe and content aboard the Ship, or help Caterwaul and Breakdown by finding the Autobots' human friends at the most evil of torture-places, schoooolll?**


	29. Chapter 29

**YO HELLO HOLA AND OTHER VARIOUS GREETINGS! My family has adopted a kitten! Woohooooo! Here, I shall call him Jaeger (German for 'hunter,' pronounced "YAY-gr.")**

**To ****Summerflower13****: Ohhh, thank you so very very muchly indeed! 'Hmm' about whether or not Shard will venture to school? Who's very what? *shrugs***

**To ****AutobotSoShi****: Hahahaha hahaha, ahhhhh, that would be so very marvelously fantastic! *starts cackling* No more schooool...! Ooh, maybe I can imagine them doing that in season three...**

**To ****Lydiathetigeropean****: Heh heh, yup; school is indeed a very evil and awful place. I hate it there- homework and tests and annoying people. Hah, the teachers never had to tell me to be quiet, I hardly ever talked. Like Shard. Rrgh, yes indeed, school is a horror.**

**To ****Iceshadow911247****: *shudders* Oooh yes, school. *grimaces, then laughs at your emoticon expression* Mm? OOohhh, thank you thank you thank you SSOOOOOOOOO much! I **_**had**_** always kind of thought Spark-bonding was a slow process, like humans emotionally-or-whatever bonding as friends/ a couple, but wasn't certain. Again, thank you soooo so so so very much much muchly indeed! ...(For here, I think I'll include some kind of small ceremony of some sort, just 'cause I wasn't it to seem more... official? I dunno. But thank you again!)**

**To ****Fatal-Impurity****: IIiihck, yes, school does indeed stink. Aww, don't worry, no need to be ashamed! I keep randomly looking at different FanFics and forgetting to read them later; I'm just so muddled and crazy. So please, you don't need to apologize, ****Mayday200****/****Miss MayD2****. Eh? Why disturbed? Oh, he already knows. Lookitee at chapters 32 and 50 of "A Con Called Caterwaul," and you'll see. (Don't worry, Breakdown still loves Caterwaul, even though he knows she's a spy/infiltrator.) Hahahaha! Yes! That'd be very neat for Shard to be an epic Deceptixon. Aww, Shard thanks you so very much for your compliment about her insanity!**

**Now, on to the chapter!**

A faint, constant drumming noise woke Shard. It sounded familiar... Sounded nice... Sounded wet... Wet? How could a noise sound wet?

Oh! It was rain! Shard smiled to herself, curled up in a corner of a pleasantly cool room. It wasn't usually cool, was it? She just _loved_ the rain...

Her pleasant thoughts were interrupted by a harsh coughing that burst out of her throat. Owww, that hurt.

The girl kept her eyes closed, hoping to do one of her favorite relaxing activities: half-awake-dreaming! Rain was all nice...

She picked a topic: cats. Cats were so wonderful. Then she just let her mind drift all over the place. Hmmm, cats, dogs, raining cats n' dogs, hehe...

She heard a noise, a whooshing swirly noise. Tornado...? No, there were no tornadoes in Kansas... No wait, not Kansas, there was that whole Dorathy thing, she meant Nevada.

No tornadoes in Nevada... Right? Shard didn't care, she was nearly partially-asleep, and had more interesting things to randomly think of than... what had it been? Dancing lions and a metal guy?

Ok, the metal guy thing felt was familiar, very familiar, she knew metal people, yeah? Had something to do with the whoosh-y portal sound. Groundbridge? Oh well. Shard's brain was already drifting away so she wouldn't fully wake up. Being awake could be very blah, unpleasant-ness.

Now, back to the... lions? No, cats. Flying cats... Phaser flapping wings batting at Shard's nose, fun little kitten cats... Oh, Phaser. He should... Shard should make sure he's inside, he doesn't like the rain...

No, wait... Phaser sorta liked rain; he liked sitting by the side of the apartment, where the rain couldn't get him... And he would try to hit the raindrops with his paws... He got so frustrated when he couldn't catch them...

Shard smiled lightly and reached out her hand drowsily, hoping that Phaser would be curled up next to her. Sometimes he snuggled up near her hands, so she could pet him whenever he wanted her to, the silly cat...

The girl's hand felt air. It dropped lower. ...Still air. Low- ...metal. Cool, hard metal. Her apartment home didn't have-...

She wasn't in her apartment home; she was... in the Decepticon ship. And Phaser was...

Shard suddenly cringed, and felt all her skin prickle with cold for an instant as her entire body instantly curled up in a tight ball.

The girl's squeezed her eyes closed and felt her hands clench into claws and she pressed them to her head.

Phaser, Phaser, Phaser...!

"N-noo," Shard half-moaned, half-whimpered.

She clenched her teeth, shaking her head. She remembered what'd happened, and felt miserable and guilty all over again.

The girl hissed out a breath, hating this misery and her own weakness for showing it. Her nails dug into her scalp, fingers clenching.

After a while, the girl managed to harden the grief into anger. She hated that she'd let Phaser die, she hated the evil human who'd killed him...

Anger hurt. But it didn't feel as weak and hopeless as sadness. It turned the thick, sinking whirlpool of helpless pain into... well, some other kind of pain, but hard and burning-y.

Shard blinked open her eyes. Her vision was blurry. She glared at the floor, willing her water-filled eyes to clear. They didn't, so she squeezed her eyes closed again and clawed away the tears, clenching her fists.

The girl let out a hissing, frustrated sigh, and loosened her tense muscles. Now she felt bad because she worried that a certain sneaky Decepticon might've seen her, via the bracelet. She really hoped not.

She didn't want anyone to worry, especially him, especially when he'd been so kind to her before. She wasn't being fair. Nothing she did was right.

Shard sighed again and laid completely limp on the ground, eyes dull. She couldn't remember the last time she had done this since she left her human family's house. She used to often feel like crying, then turned it into anger and resentment, and then it went numb and dull and cold.

And she'd really had no reason to complain. Her parents had never abused her, her family wasn't poor, she never did drugs, she'd had more than enough food, clothes, random toys and objects that took up space.

She'd heard stories of people in other countries who starved, and kids whose parents hurt them. So she'd feel guilty for her whining self-pity.

Which would made her feel like a horrible person, and then she'd feel more sad, and then more guilty.

She'd driven herself insane.

And now she was starting over, all over again, here. NO, she decided, _stop it._ I'm not going to act like this. Again, I have no reason to complain.

'I coulda' been killed,' Shard reminded herself, 'but Megatwi- well, ok, Mega_tron_, let me live, let me get food. I should be grateful. But I'm just snappish and kind of rude to him. Well, more than 'kinda'. But he's bossy and annoying. So? I should still try to act better. Bleh.'

The girl looked tiredly at her hands. There were tiny little smidges of blood on her palms. Shard looked at her nails. Pointy.

She sighed, licked the stinging little cuts, and then cleaned her tongue off on her shirt, which was already smeared with dried and ancient bloodstains.

A little more wouldn't make a difference.

Insanity could be fun, the girl thought. But not always.

There's mentally-in-pain confused and frustrated insanity, she thought, and then there's the fun and crazy kind of random-insanity.

Shard preferred the crazy random insanity that flickered through her rain. That was fun. Funner. More fun.

Shard thought some random crazy words to make herself smile and cheer up. 'Random monkey pickle mutants! Gooey domino slices. MP3 tuba mistake fish. Ha ha ha...'

Shard felt better now, smiling lightly at her own weirdness, and stood up. Now she felt... well, mostly ok enough to get up. She should probably go help out with whatever she could around the ship.

Caterwaul had already left, probably a while ago. Shard still needed help finding her way around the ship, but she was pretty sure she knew where the main control room and medbay were at least.

Now. To get out of the room. She'd been told (**Again, thank you SOOO very very much, ****Iceshadow911247!**) that most of the 'Cons used a panel by the doors to open them.

Shard wasn't sure if it'd work for a human, so she decided to use her shrapnel blade. She unhooked it from her object-necklace and looked it over for a moment, cleaning off a couple little bits of dirt. Good, nice and clean.

The girl walked to the side of the room opposite from the door, loosened her shoulders a bit, took a breath, and then ran forward.

A little over a yard away from the panel, which was a few feet above her head, Shard leaped up as high as she could. As the panel was coming to eye-level, she threw her arms forward and grabbed at it with one hand, smacking down with the flat side of her blade.

Shard really hoped she didn't damage it. She clung to the top of the panel, then pressed down more carefully with the flat of her shrapnel blade of Cybertronian metal.

To the girl's amazement and excitement, the door slid open. "Yahoo!" she cheered, then realized that she had to get down.

After a bit of wriggling uncomfortably, Shard managed to lower herself down a bit, and then let go.

She landed with a dull slapping noise- her bare feet hitting the metal floor. Alright! The door was just over here, and...

Oh great. It closed. Shard growled, feeling very miffed.

Then she repeated her process of running and jumping. Now her limbs felt tired. This time, she managed to get through the sliding door before it closed, and she quietly cheered for her accomplishment.

Now. First she'd go and see what Megatron might want her to help out with. (If she went to do something for Knockout, as she preferred, Megatron might ask her to do something else, and then she'd say 'No, I'm doing this,' and then both she and the medic would be yelled at or something.)

The girl couldn't do much, compared to the giant metal persons, but she could at least try. So, she shrugged to herself and headed in the direction of the main control room.

...

On her way there, she heard a weird noise.

It sounded somehow very creepy, and was sort of like a metallic tapping. She'd say 'scurrying,' but the noise was too slow and... deliberate almost. None of the Decepticons made that noise.

Shard shivered slightly, and then huffed out a short breath, telling herself to quit scaring herself. Still, just in case (of what, she wasn't sure), the girl stayed close to the wall, so she wouldn't be vulnerable on all sides.

The noise was getting much closer now, and Shard stopped.

The noise kept getting louder. Closer.

Shard felt her throat closing in fear, and tried to reason with herself. She should stop overreacting- this wasn't some stupid cliché horror movie! Maybe one of the Vehicons was injured and using a cane?

The idea and accompanying image made her grin at how silly she imagined it. The girl thought of calling out, but decided not to.

There was a shadow.

Shard's eyes widened. The shadow was tall and looked like moving sticks, and the creepy tapping got louder, echoing.

At the last second, the girl managed to call out a frightened, squeaky, "Hi?"

Then whoever- or whatever- it was, came into view.

GIANT ROBOT DADDY-LONG-LEGS SPIDER!


End file.
